# Women's Privacy Project > Privacy news, how-tos, and recommendations—for women, by women. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About the Women's* Privacy Project URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/about/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:50:00.000Z The *Women's Privacy Project* is an independent publication launched in July 2022\. We believe that privacy is a human right and the practices around it should be understandable and accessible to everyone. This publication was created for the sole purpose of making data privacy easy to understand, straightforward, and implementable by anyone regardless of your level of tech savvy. ### Support the work If you're interested in supporting this work, you can make a one-time or monthly contribution through [Buy Me a Coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/privacyproject?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). *Women's Privacy Project* posts are always free, but it helps to cover costs for the site ($200/yr!) and the time I spend researching and putting together each post (too many hours to count!). If you can't support monetarily, I completely understand—please share your favorite article with a friend instead! ### Fresh content, delivered When you subscribe, you'll receive new content sent straight to your inbox—no more worrying about whether you missed something because of a 'helpful' algorithm. ### Meet people like you Join a community of other subscribers who care about their digital privacy and want to understand how to protect themselves online. Comments are open on all posts as well—start a conversation! --- \* The Women’s Privacy Project is for everyone. For those of us with uteruses, we have never been more at risk by data collection. Our nonbinary, trans, and all other friends who value privacy online are always welcome. We will often specifically address privacy issues with regard to people whose rights are being summarily repealed. ### Privacy Glossary URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/privacy-glossary/ Last updated: 2026-03-26T13:01:44.000Z I thought it might be helpful to add an evergreen glossary of terms that come up often in the world of privacy. This will be a work in progress. Have a term you'd like added in here? Not sure what something means? Drop me a line at kl@womensprivacyproject.org. ## Biometrics **Biometrics** are a means of accessing a device using only your physical person—**fingerprints**, **facial recognition**, etc.—rather than a password or PIN. In many jurisdictions, the law treats biometrics differently than passwords. While you generally cannot be forced to reveal a **password** (thanks to 5th Amendment protections against self-incrimination), some courts have ruled that law enforcement **can** legally compel you to provide a fingerprint or face scan to unlock a device. **Safety Tip:** If you are in a high-risk situation (like a protest or a sensitive crossing), it is often safer to **disable biometrics** and rely solely on a strong PIN or password. Most phones have a "lockdown mode" or a way to quickly disable TouchID/FaceID. ## Browser Fingerprint The specific combination of your screen resolution, battery level, fonts installed, and browser version creates a unique "fingerprint" that can identify your device across different sites. Browser fingerprinting can be used to create shadow profiles (see below). ## Cookies **Cookies** are trackers that are downloaded to your computer when you visit a website. Cookies can be helpful, like if you don't want to keep signing into your email account every time or if you selected dark mode on a website and don't want to re-select it every time you visit, or cookies can track what you do across websites, often used to sell data about your habits for personalized ads. Learn more about cookies in this deep dive: [Ok, but like, what ARE cookies?You’ve probably swatted away 14 cookie notifications just today, but what exactly are cookies and should you be concerned?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/icon/Logo-full-smaller-1-2.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fc5e08a92-1936-4b0f-a812-ff48625ed573_1024x1024-png-1.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-but-like-what-are-cookies/) ## Data Broker **Data brokers** or 'people listing sites' are companies that **collect personal information** from various sources (social media, public records, buying history) to create a profile of you and sell it to others. Here's how to deal with them: [Remove Yourself from People Listing SitesWhitepages, Peoplesearch, Spokeo—whatever they call themselves, get off their lists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/icon/Logo-full-smaller-1-1.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fsubstack-post-media-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2f3541d2ba-3ec4-40b5-a442-30f54cbe0d9c_1920x1280-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/remove-yourself-from-people-listing/) ## Deceptive Design (previously: Dark Patterns) **Deceptive design** is when an interface is designed to **trick users** into doing things that they either don't intend or aren't in their best interests—like sharing more data than necessary or making it difficult to delete an account. Common deceptive design patterns can be found in cookie banners (making it easy to opt into cookies but difficult to opt out) and privacy settings (making it difficult to find or change privacy settings). ## Encryption **Encryption** is the process of scrambling readable data (plaintext) into an unreadable format (ciphertext) using a mathematical algorithm and a specific **key**. This key acts like a digital "secret code" that only authorized users or devices possess. Without the correct key to **decrypt** the information, the data just looks like gibberish to anyone who tries to intercept it. ## End-to-End Encryption (e2ee) **End-to-End Encryption** refers to the process of sending encrypted data from one device to another, in which the encryption is maintained through the entire trip (end-to-end). The information/message is encrypted on one device (all scrambled up), travels as encrypted content, and then can only be decrypted by the authorized user or device it was intended for. If **anyone**—including the companies or servers handling the messages—were to try and intercept the message or access it, it would just look like gibberish. ## Incognito/Private Mode Many web browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Brave, Firefox, and others have the option to view the web via an "incognito window" or a "private browser window". This is **often misunderstood** as "stealth mode." In reality, it only hides your activity *from your own device*. When you close an incognito window, your browser "forgets" your history and deletes any cookies from that session. It does **not** hide your activity from the websites you visit, your employer, or your internet provider. They can still see your IP address and track your movements. Use Incognito to hide your Christmas shopping from your spouse on a shared computer—don't use it to hide your identity from the internet. ## Internet Protocol (IP) Address An **IP address** is a unique string of numbers assigned to every device and website. Think of it like a digital return address—it tells the internet where to send the data you requested. Because your IP address is linked to your internet provider, it can also be used to reveal your **approximate physical location** (like your city or zip code). When you're using a shared network, like at a coffee shop or an office, dozens of different devices might appear to the outside world as having the same IP address. **Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)** can hide your real IP address by replacing it with one of their own, making it much harder for websites to track your location or identity. [VPNs aren’t just for VIPsOne of the easiest ways to protect your privacy is with a good VPN.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/icon/Logo-full-smaller-1-4.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fed95662b-aa37-481e-b56c-443912a61efd_2400x1611-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/vpns-arent-just-for-vips/) ## Metadata **Metadata** is any piece of data that is secondarily created when someone accesses a website, app, or digital service. Some refer to it as "**data about data**." Metadata may include but is not limited to your IP address, your GPS location, what type of device you're using, what software is installed on that device, etc. Think of it this way: if you were on a phone call, the data would be the conversation itself, the metadata would be who you talked to for how long and **exactly where you were standing when you made the call.** For photos, metadata (EXIF data) can often reveal the GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken. ## Shadow Profile Shadow profiles refer to the collection of data about an individual who has **not** signed up for a specific service (like Facebook or Google). Even if you don't have an account, companies can "see" you across the web via **Meta Pixels**, **Google Analytics**, or "Like" buttons embedded on other websites. They collect metadata like your IP address and browsing habits to build a profile of your interests, location, and even your political or health-related leanings. These companies can track your digital life without your explicit consent or the ability for you to easily delete the data since you don't have an "account" to log into. ## Tracking Pixel A **Tracking Pixel** is just that, a tiny, invisible 1x1 pixel image embedded in emails or websites. When you load the page or open the email, that tiny image "calls home" to a server (like Meta or Google), telling them exactly when you opened it, what device you used, and your IP address. It’s the primary tool used to build Shadow Profiles. ## Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) **Two-Factor Authentication** is an extra layer of security that requires not just a password, but also something only the user has (like a code from an app). 2FA makes it more difficult for someone to access an account since the password alone won't allow them access. Deep dive into 2FA (and set it up) here: [What is two/multi-factor authentication and why should you turn it on?A rare delve into ‘security’ for this publication!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/icon/Logo-full-smaller-1-3.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fd4e92915-ed36-470e-a968-4d6a5556d2da_2400x1600-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/what-is-twomulti-factor-authentication/) --- Have a question about a privacy term that I've missed? Send me an email at kl@womensprivacyproject.org and let me know! I'm happy to make additions! ## Posts ### Online Banking, Security & Privacy URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/online-banking-security-privacy/ Last updated: 2026-04-30T10:31:07.000Z I got a question from a friend today asking about whether it's safe to check banking, credit card, or financial information on Linux. I had an answer, and also, I think banking security and privacy is a good topic regardless of your operating system, so let's make this a quick one, shall we? ## Linux vs. Windows vs. MacOS and Security Let's start with the operating system. **Linux** is a free, open-source operating system. It's powerful, super secure (partly because there are so many people contributing to its development), and versatile. Linux comes in many flavors, and you can choose from different distributions (a.k.a. 'distros') depending on your preferences. It's considered to be the gold standard for privacy. **Windows** is basically an ad spam machine, still somewhat in development by Microsoft, that is easily filled with viruses and spyware if you blink your eyes for too long while you have a web browser open. Tell me I'm wrong. **MacOS** is Apple's operating system, and it's generally considered to be a very secure system. But, unlike Linux, it's owned by Apple and the code is not openly available for review and contribution outside of Apple, and many call it a 'walled-garden'. That said, it's built on a similar code base to Linux, and is also less prone to security issues like spyware or viruses than Windows. ## What does this have to do with banking? Well, not much specifically with banking, but if your operating system is compromised by a virus or spyware, it can be much easier for someone to see what you're doing at the system level (i.e. before you even reach a website), so it's important to make sure that your operating system is also up-to-date and secure in its own right (and if you have Windows, get a really good virus software). A more variable factor to consider would be your **network security**. ### What makes a network secure? First, it depends whose network it is. If you're at home and your router uses a good password, it's probably pretty secure. Depending on what other devices you have connected to the network, maybe less so, but not definitely not at the level of public networks. Public networks are the ones that you can get onto for free like at a coffee shop or in a store. These can be monitored by the owner of the network and can technically be accessed by anyone else connected to the network. Does everyone know how to do that? No. But some people do, and so it's best to protect yourself if you're using a public network. A great way to protect your data on public—or even home—networks is with a trusted [VPN](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/vpns-arent-just-for-vips/). [VPNs aren’t just for VIPsOne of the easiest ways to protect your privacy is with a good VPN.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fed95662b-aa37-481e-b56c-443912a61efd_2400x1611-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/vpns-arent-just-for-vips/) ### What about website security? Modern browsers make it a little hard to tell if the site you're on is encrypted since they don't often show the full URL anymore or the little lock icon, but one way to check is by clicking on the URL in the address bar and pressing the back arrow on your keyboard. If you see https://, you're on a secure website. That 's' at the end of https tells us that the information you send between your computer and that site is encrypted. The good news here is that even if you're on a public network, and even if someone is trying to intercept your data (we call this a 'middleman attack'), that data is encrypted. They might be able to see that you're on chase.com, but they can't see your credentials, form data, or your banking information, etc. All of that would be gibberish on their end. There are a couple of ways that a middleman attack can still happen, but the good news is that modern browsers (and most banking websites) explicitly protect from those types of attacks. If you are trying to access your banking website and you see a big red warning on your browser that says, "**Your connection is not private**," **stop immediately**. ## Are there any additional security measures I can take to protect my online banking information? Sure! One way to protect that information is to **create a separate profile in your web browser—or use a different web browser entirely**—just for your banking. Don't install any plugins or extensions on this browser and don't use it for accessing any other websites. I'd recommend always using a secure web browser, personally I like [Brave](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/) since it's built on the same engine as Chrome, so they look and feel similar without all the data mining. [Ditch Google ChromeGoogle Chrome is a data harvester. Ditch it for good.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1461685265823-f8d5d0b08b9b?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fHByaXZhY3l8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzcxNDE2OTI4fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/) Also, **make sure your web browser is always up to date**. There are almost always security updates and patches that are worth keeping up with. Of course, **make sure you're using a strong password that you don't use for any other website**. It's a good idea to use a password manager to create unique passwords for every site you visit, but at LEAST make sure your banking password is unique. [Manage Your PasswordsIn an ideal future, we won’t need passwords at all! But while we do, let’s manage them better.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2f63a63a15-11a8-4f24-884b-9f1427939082_1920x1440-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/manage-your-passwords/) Lastly, **turn on two-factor authentication** if it's not already required. This prevents someone from accessing your account even if they do manage to get access to your account credentials. It's always a good idea, but even more important when financial information is involved. [What is two/multi-factor authentication and why should you turn it on?A rare delve into ‘security’ for this publication!![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fd4e92915-ed36-470e-a968-4d6a5556d2da_2400x1600-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/what-is-twomulti-factor-authentication/) ## Final Thoughts Banking websites are some of the most secure sites on the internet, so there's honestly less to worry about with them, but it's good to consider what other ways your information can be accessed or compromised. Ensuring your operating system is secure and up-to-date is a great start, and using a secure network to access a secure website, with a secure and unique password are all great ways to ensure your personal information stays private. [![CTA Image](https://womens-privacy-project.ghost.io/content/images/2026/02/Logo-Black-1.png)](https://buymeacoffee.com/privacyproject?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) The **Women's Privacy Project* is free for everyone, but it costs ****$200/year** to host on secure, private servers (and it's a labor of love). If you found this content helpful or at least interesting, please consider supporting the mission with a one-time or monthly contribution. [Support the Project ](https://buymeacoffee.com/privacyproject?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) I know I said this would be a quick one, but I'm wordy, ok? Sorry. Keep on keepin' on, KL ### The End of End-to-End Encryption is Nigh for Instagram URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/the-end-of-end-to-end-encryption-is-nigh-for-instagram/ Last updated: 2026-03-24T11:00:41.000Z That's right, what little privacy you may have once had on Instagram is ending on May 8. --- I've mentioned (briefly) before that Instagram messages *did* have an *opt-in* option for end-to-end encryption (e2ee). Not that I *ever* recommend using Meta services at all if privacy is something you value, but I *did* mention it... [Quit SMS Text MessagesAmericans love to text, but it’s the least secure form of digital messaging.. it’s time to move on.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/icon/Logo-full-smaller-1.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1461685265823-f8d5d0b08b9b)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-sms-text-messages/) Well, now Zuck's like, "I mean, hardly anyone was using that top-secret feature we buried deep in the privacy settings anyways, so we're just gonna, like, ditch it." Ok, that's not a direct quote, but it's [more or less accurate](https://www.theverge.com/tech/894752/instagram-end-to-end-encryption?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). ### What should you do if you're using Instagram messages? Well, if you're one of the rare and endangered species who traversed the deepest, darkest caves and actually managed to turn on end-to-end encryption, [they say](https://help.instagram.com/491565145294150/?helpref=uf%5Fshare&ref=womensprivacyproject.org): > If you have chats that are impacted by this change, you will see instructions on how you can download any media or messages you may want to keep. > If you're on an older version of Instagram, you may also need to update the app before you can download your affected chats. Instructions which are vague enough as to be lost in a fog storm during a hurricane, but I guess look for a note or something? Or, if you weren't one of the fortunate few to find that buried treasure, Zuck'll just keep on reading all those messages like he always has (and training his AI bots on all of it). All that said, if you're still using Instagram messages, you should just... not. Just, like... leave. Do it. Throw it in Zuck's stupid smug mug. [Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover didn’t make people like him, study shows | TechCrunchA study by the Pew Research Center found that Americans’ views of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg skew more negative than positive. While Zuckerberg has![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/icon/cropped-cropped-favicon-gradient.png)TechCrunchAmanda Silberling![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/thumbnail/GettyImages-2173579488.jpg)](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/20/mark-zuckerbergs-makeover-didnt-make-people-like-him-study-shows/?guccounter=1&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [Signal really is great.](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/up-your-signal-game/) You should try it! Bring your friends! That's all I've got for today. Leave it to Zuck to ruin a barely good thing. Keep on keepin' on, KL [![CTA Image](https://womens-privacy-project.ghost.io/content/images/2026/02/Logo-Black-1.png)](https://buymeacoffee.com/privacyproject?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) The **Women's Privacy Project* is free for everyone, but it costs ****$200/year** to host on secure, private servers (and it's a labor of love). If you found this content helpful or at least interesting, please consider supporting the mission with a one-time or monthly contribution. [Support the Project ](https://buymeacoffee.com/privacyproject?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### You can be anyone you want! URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/you-can-be-anyone-you-want/ Last updated: 2026-03-17T14:06:31.000Z Did you know that when you create an account online or off, you can be anyone you want? Well, it's true, [for now at least](https://www.404media.co/age-verification-laws-will-drag-us-back-to-the-dark-ages-of-online-porn/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)! Try it out! ## Fake it 'til you make it... When you sign up for a new site or to get that fresh reward card from the local bakery, they tend to ask for way more information than they need. In so many cases, there's no reason to tell the truth. Your government ID is rarely needed. Here are some pieces of data that you can either fake or ignore in most cases: ### Email Address Ok, so you can't *fake it* per se, but get yourself an email address that **isn't** *firstname.lastname@gmail.com* and use that to sign up for stuff. Doesn't matter what it is, a series of letters and numbers will do the job. crapbag6789@gmail.com really rolls off the tongue. I use Fastmail which lets me set up as many 'alias' email addresses as I want. I have a handful that I use for slightly different occasions, but they're all linked to my actual inbox for simplicity's sake. ### Name Are you applying for a credit card or an apartment? Are you buying airline tickets? No? Then make something up! Your Starbucks rewards account does not need your government name, ok? The Starbucks police aren't gonna come after you, I promise. Plus, think of how fun it will be when they call out for "Princess Consuela Bananahammock" and you go strutting up there to grab your [venti white mocha, quad shot, 2 shots on bottom, two on top, almond milk, extra hot, caramel drizzle INSIDE THE CUP, with extra whip cream](https://www.reddit.com/r/starbucks/comments/7vicpe/most%5Fridiculous%5Fdaily%5Fcustomer%5Forder%5Fgo/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Real power move. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/03/episode-14-friends-GIF.gif) First Name: Crap, Last Name: Bag (Scene from Friends) **Name/Email Side Note:** I know I said before you should [Sign In With Email](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/sign-in-with-email/), but if you're an iPhone/Apple user (and you're planning to continue being one), I actually DO use the "Sign In with Apple" option when it's available. They actually set up a relay email address for you if you choose not to share your email address, and you can also put in whatever name you want when you sign up. That's actually a really great, privacy-forward service. ### Phone Numbers This one is actually so hard to avoid faking. If it's required to enter one, you'll *probably* have to use your own. You can create a Google Voice\* account (free) that will give you a different phone number (which can be forwarded to your personal number), but I have to admit this will not work every time. Many sites block the use of VOIP numbers, so if you feel *really* strongly about this one, maybe get yourself a pre-paid burner phone. \*Google Voice is just one VOIP service. If you've been here awhile you know how I feel about Google and "free" services. That said, there are many other VOIP services you can choose from, but most of them are paid and will likely still give you the same issues, so ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ ### Title Ignore this every time. For one thing, it's totally biased against women. If I pick 'Mr.' it's fairly easy to assume I'm a man, but you're not getting much else from that. If I pick Miss, Ms., Mrs., Mx. etc, suddenly there's a pretty good chance you can glean not only my gender, but also my marital status and even age to an extent. Just leave this one blank. Or pick *Captain* if it's available. *Captain KL* has a nice ring to it. ### Zip Code Ok, if it will make your life easier to enter a zip code, like, say, trying to find the nearest Starbucks (yes, I'm sitting in a Starbucks right now, ok? Don't judge me.), then pick a zip code nearby. Zip codes are surprisingly small, you'll probably get the same results picking the next one up or down (e.g. 90210 becomes 90211). ### Gender Rarely needed, but if it's required flip a coin, roll a die—just randomize it. ### Age/Birthday Why are they asking for this? Birthday rewards? Why not spread it out and get your free birthday discounts year round! If age matters, just pick something that's old enough. If you think you'll need your 'birthday' to verify the account again sometime in the future, pick a date—not your own birthday—and just use that every time so you'll remember what it is. **Super fun fact**: With just zip code, gender, and birthday 87% of Americans can be uniquely identified! Neat! [Source](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/09/your-secrets-live-online-in-databases-of-ruin/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) --- ## When to tell the truth (maybe)... Ok so sometimes you'll need to tell the truth. A good time to use your full government name is on a full government document. Credit check? Background check?—gotta use the real data. Airline tickets? Of course. There's a couple *maybes* in there too: **Online Payments**: Do you *have* to use a personal credit card? If you do, that generally requires some data—typically name, billing address, the credit card details, etc. If you really want to avoid giving them your personal info, you can always get yourself a Visa gift card (or the like). You don't need to link your personal info to those gift cards. OR, if you're into that sorta thing, you can sometimes pay with cryptocurrency. See what the site allows before you just throw down your plastic. **Shipping Details**: If you're ordering something online, you'll likely need to give them an address to send it to. You *could* give your home address, or you could get yourself a PO Box at the local post office, you can use a parcel locker, or you can get a private mailbox from a UPS store, etc. There's usually a fee associated with these types of services, so look into what you can get near you for the best deal if you want to go that route. --- Everyone loves a good alter ego, so have some fun with it, Mr. Anderson. Keep on keepin' on, Captain KL ### Topical Topics & The Power of Public Shaming URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/topical-topics-and-the-power-of-public/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:33.000Z There’s a lot of conversation happening right now in the realm of privacy and surveillance, and the pushback is actually forcing hands that aren’t easily forced. Here are some stories I’m following this week. ![timelapse photo of people passing the street](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1461088945293-0c17689e48ac?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw2fHxjcm93ZHxlbnwwfHx8fDE3NzEyNDM3NzZ8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080) Photo by [mauro mora](https://unsplash.com/@mauromora?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ## The Rise of Age Verification and the Fall of Discord There’s been a global push for laws requiring age verification to access certain types of content or websites that may be considered ‘harmful’ to children. Proponents believe that this is the best way to protect children from pornography, unsuitable content, explicit material, and even social media generally. Opponents see the privacy implications written all over the walls. [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) Whenever we hear something is being implemented to ‘protect children,’ it should raise at least an orange flag, if not a red one. It’s a classic wolf cry that typically leads to problematic policy implementations that affect everyone, some more than others. If you’re not sure how to feel, maybe take a look at [who’s for it](https://www.heritage.org/big-tech/report/age-verification-what-it-why-its-necessary-and-how-achieve-it?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and [who’s against it](https://www.eff.org/issues/age-verification?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). In general, the requirements for proving age can be anything from biometrics and facial recognition to requests for government identification or credit cards. Considering how lackadaisical the government and tech companies have been lately about handling our personal data, it’s easy to see where this could go very wrong. Data breaches are common, with barely an ‘our bad’ in response. So sure, let’s give those guys copies of our government IDs, what could go wrong? We’ll also see algorithmic bias become considerably worse if we outright tell them explicitly where we live, our age, gender, etc. And none of that is to mention that anything you post on the internet could be directly connected to your personal identity—which could be a real problem if, say, [Reddit, Meta, and Google were voluntarily giving DHS info of anti-ICE users](https://gizmodo.com/reddit-meta-and-google-voluntarily-gave-dhs-info-of-anti-ice-users-report-says-2000722279?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). So where does Discord come into all this? Before we get into it, if you’re not familiar with Discord, it’s a group messaging platform originally marketed to gamers but currently seeing much wider use amongst all sorts of digital communities. I’ve admittedly used it in the past but would not recommend it since their privacy practices are abysmal at best. Pressing on—age verification has not been going well for them, and it’s a bit of a canary in the coal mine. First, they started implementing facial recognition for age verification, and [it was easily bypassed](https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/someone-has-already-made-a-free-in-browser-3d-model-to-bypass-discord-age-verification-that-works-on-any-potato-computer/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Then they went for collecting government IDs through a vendor who was later hacked, [exposing 70k users’ IDs](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/oct/09/hack-age-verification-firm-discord-users-id-photos?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). And just recently, they [announced they’re back at it](https://kotaku.com/discord-will-force-you-to-scan-your-face-or-id-to-unlock-all-of-its-features-2000666884?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) but with a new vendor—Persona. Of course, Persona was quickly identified as being backed by Peter Thiel—co-founder of Palantir and lactose-intolerant [Epstein lunch date](https://www.wired.com/story/epstein-files-tech-elites-gates-thiel-musk/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). If you’ve never heard of it, Palantir—a company I’ll deep-dive into someday (probably when I’ve lost the will to live)—is currently working closely with ICE and the federal government to develop some [ELITE surveillance tools](https://www.404media.co/elite-the-palantir-app-ice-uses-to-find-neighborhoods-to-raid/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Cool! After receiving considerable backlash from users including cancelled paid accounts, archived servers, and a public lashing around the web, Discord quickly tried to [distance themselves](https://kotaku.com/discord-palantir-peter-thiel-persona-age-verification-2000668951?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) from Persona, and even tried to [make light of the age verification](https://kotaku.com/discord-age-verification-ai-hack-nitro-boycott-2000667358?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). We’ll see how it all plays out, but it’s not looking good for them or their [planned IPO](https://www.reuters.com/business/chat-platform-discord-confidentially-file-us-ipo-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-01-06/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Whoops. --- ## Ring-a-Ding-Ding, Ring’s Back in the Ring Ring, the popular but [problematic](https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-harassment-through-home-security-cameras?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) doorbell camera system owned by Amazon, has re-entered the ring with a fun—and not at all dystopian—new feature that they’ve dubbed “Search Party.” ICYMI, check out their \~$8M-10M Super Bowl ad… and get your tissues ready! So a thing about Ring that you may not know is that back in October, they [entered into a deal with Flock Safety](https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/flock-safety-and-ring-partner-to-help-neighborhoods-work-together-for-safer-communities?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)—you know, the company that makes those *crime-fighting* cameras you see up on poles that track every vehicle and person that passes by and despite not having any federal contracts still [somehow get regularly used by ICE](https://www.404media.co/ice-taps-into-nationwide-ai-enabled-camera-network-data-shows/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and to [track women across the country post-abortion](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/she-got-abortion-so-texas-cop-used-83000-cameras-track-her-down?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)—that would *allow* their users to ‘securely and privately’ share footage with local public safety agencies during active investigations. Well, that [partnership came to an end](https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) following the backlash from the Super Bowl ad, probably because a bunch of people with eyes [saw the ad](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/10/ring-super-bowl-ad-dog-camera-privacy/88606738007/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and thought to themselves… wait just a gosh-darned second… couldn’t they use that AI to track… people? Which, arguably, shined a light on the previously announced deal as being—perhaps—problematic. --- ## A Story That Made Me LOL So there’s an ongoing lawsuit about the allegedly horrendous conditions detainees were subjected to at the Broadview ICE detention center in Chicago—I know, not funny right? Truly not funny. But hear me out… Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case requested camera footage from within the facility that covered some 10 days of time. The government at first responded that the footage was “irretrievably destroyed” and couldn’t be produced. Later, they changed the story and said it was actually never recorded in the first place due to a system crash. Then the plaintiffs’ lawyers toured the facility and requested footage from different cameras they discovered. Guess what the government had to say now… From 404 Media: > For this footage, the federal government first claimed that it could not afford the storage space necessary to take the footage that it did have and produce it for discovery to the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the case. The plaintiffs’ lawyers, representing Broadview’s detainees, then purchased 78 terabytes of empty hard drives and gave them to the federal government, [according to court records](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26950301-154/?ref=404media.co). This included three 8-terabyte SSDs and three 18-terabyte hard drives. So DHS actually had the gall to claim that despite their $107.9 billion 2025 budget, they couldn’t afford to buy a few hard drives. But that’s not all. DHS, inexplicably, LOST 3 of the 5 hard drives they were given. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are waiting on footage from 5 critical cameras that covered isolation cells, which are purportedly where the worst conditions would be found, but the Government claimed it ran out of storage space, and then later admitted that “it cannot find three of the five hard drives that should be in its possession.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/8b8a29b5-4a05-40eb-88bb-216b5325f180_392x260.gif) Read the full story, it really is a ride: [https://www.404media.co/government-loses-hard-drives-it-was-supposed-to-put-ice-detention-center-footage-on/](https://www.404media.co/government-loses-hard-drives-it-was-supposed-to-put-ice-detention-center-footage-on/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) --- ### Articles I’m Working On I’ve got a few articles in the works right now, but I could use a push on which one folks would like to see most, so send me a note if you have a preference. Here’s what’s in progress: - The Current State of Surveillance in the U.S. - What is Lockdown Mode and Should You Use It? - Protecting Your Privacy at Protests What do we think? --- Also! In the realm of actual fun good news, the Women’s Privacy Project has officially hit 100 subscribers! Thanks for joining the party everyone! If you like what you read here, tell a friend! If you REALLY like what you read here, [support my work](https://buymeacoffee.com/privacyproject?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)! Keep on keepin’ on, KL [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### Up Your Signal Game URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/up-your-signal-game/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:34.000Z Hi friends! And an extra welcome to all our new friends who’ve recently joined! Great to have you! I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written, but it’s not for a lack of ideas I can assure you. I’ve been following a few stories that won’t sit still long enough for me to write about them (I’m looking at you, Flock), but perfect is the enemy of progress and all that. That said, I’m working on a refresh around here with a new rhythm and some new formats I’m pretty excited about. Expect to see a mix of longer essays, shorter roundups, some in-progress ideas, and of course our bread and butter—the privacy how-to guides. The goal is a cadence that’s sustainable for me and more consistent for you. To ease back in, I figured I’d start with a bit of a softball topic, so let’s get into it! --- If you are not using Signal for messaging yet, [have I got the article for you](https://substack.com/@privacyproject/p-66546452?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Go on, click it. We’ll wait. If you are already there, \* *snaps*\*. Now, let’s dig into a few underused features that’ll give your messaging privacy the glow-up it deserves. [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ## In the News It was recently reported that the [FBI has opened investigations](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/fbi-investigating-minnesota-signal-minneapolis-group-ice-patel-kash-rcna256041?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) into Minneapolis residents who [used Signal chats to alert their communities about ICE presence](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minneapolis-school-patrols-ice-immigration-surge-rcna254477?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) near homes and schools. This raises important free-speech questions. The First Amendment protects the right to speak and, in many cases, to record law enforcement performing official duties, according to Alex Abdo of the Knight First Amendment Institute. 🎥👮🏼‍♂️ Aaron Terr of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told NBC News that speech is only unprotected when it is *intended and likely to provoke imminent unlawful action*. Warning neighbors or sharing information does not automatically meet that standard. **Bottom line**: Knowing your rights—and protecting your communications—matters. ## Let’s Talk about Signal The only data Signal can provide under subpoena is when you installed the app and when you last used it. Message content is not stored on Signal’s servers—but messages stored on your device (or someone else’s) could still be accessed if a phone is seized or compromised. So what can you do to reduce that risk? ### Set Up Disappearing Messages ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/d067b4b4-ee2f-433b-92aa-9c53d2a0efd6_720x540.gif) iykyk Disappearing messages let you control how long messages stay visible in a conversation. When you send a message, your timer starts. When the recipient opens it, *their* timer starts. For example, if disappearing messages are set to **1 day**, the message will remain visible in **your** chat for one day after you send it, and in **their** chat for one day after they read it. #### Set a Default Timer for Disappearing Messages You can set up a default timer for disappearing messages in conversations that you initiate in the app settings. 1. Tap on your **profile icon** at the top 2. Select **Settings** from the panel 3. Go to **Privacy** 4. Tap **Disappearing Messages** 5. Set a time that you feel comfortable with This default setting only applies (by default) to messages you initiate, so if you’re added to other conversations, you’ll want to… #### Set Message-Specific Timers for Disappearing Messages If you’re part of a conversation already (private or group), anyone in the conversation can change the disappearing message time. 1. **Open the conversation** 2. Tap on the **profile/conversation name** at the top 3. Tap **Disappearing Messages** 4. Set a time that you feel comfortable with **Remember**: Disappearing messages affect **everyone** in the conversation, not just you. ### Set Up a Username If I’m organizing locally or talking to people I don’t know well, I prefer not to share my phone number. Signal lets you create a username so people can contact you without knowing your number. #### Notes About Usernames - Usernames are unique—someone needs your **exact** username to find you - You can change your username at any time - Changing your username **will not affect existing conversations** - No one is notified when your username changes - Your username is **not visible in conversations** (only your profile name appears) - You still need a phone number to sign up for Signal, but you can control whether it’s visible to others in **Settings** (see the **Privacy Settings** section below) #### Create Your Username 1. Tap on your **profile icon** at the top 2. Select **Settings** from the panel 3. Tap on your **name/profile** at the top 4. Tap **Username** 5. Check out the notes about usernames because it’s good info 6. Tap **Set up your Username** 7. Create a username (it will always include numbers—you can choose them if you want) You can share your username using the built-in **QR code** or by sending someone a **link**. Both options appear below your username. ### Take Advantage of Photo & Video Features Signal has some powerful photo and video tools you might not be using yet: - **Strip metadata from photos:** Sending a photo through Signal removes embedded metadata, which can include the date and time it was taken, device and camera details, and location/GPS data. If you want a metadata-free version, send the image to yourself and download it again from the conversation. - **Blur faces or sensitive details in photos:** - **Select a photo** to send in a Signal conversation (even to yourself), but don’t send it yet - Tap the **Edit** icon (bottom left) - Tap the **Blur** icon (it looks like a circle made up of smaller circles) - Turn on **Blur Faces** (helpful, but not perfect), or manually draw to blur specific areas - If you want to share the edited image elsewhere, send it to yourself and download it from the conversation - **Back up important photos or videos by sending them to trusted friends:** If your device is lost or compromised, you will still have access to copies (just be mindful of disappearing message timers if you do this). Images and videos are encrypted end-to-end and typically send in higher quality than text messages, but if you’re concerned about quality, you can always… - **Adjust the Media Quality for sent photos and videos:** - Tap on your **profile icon** at the top - Select **Settings** from the panel - Tap on **Data Usage** - Find **Sent Media Quality** - Set it to **High** if you want better quality (this uses more data, use your best judgement) **Keep In Mind**: Even with metadata removed or faces blurred, always assume an image could still be shared beyond its intended audience. Send thoughtfully—there’s no ‘undo’ once it leaves your device. ### Use Nicknames to Protect Yourself & Others Nicknames can help obscure your identity (and the identities of your contacts) within conversation threads. As it turns out, full legal names make people pretty easy to identify. Go figure. 🤔 Nicknames are also end-to-end encrypted, meaning Signal cannot read them, though they should still be treated as a helpful layer of friction—not a guarantee of anonymity. #### Set Your Own Nickname Once you set a nickname, that name will appear in your conversation threads instead of your real name. 1. Tap on your **profile icon** at the top 2. Select **Settings** from the panel 3. Tap on your **name/profile** at the top 4. Tap on **your name** (next to the person icon) 5. Change your name to a nickname (ideally, one that doesn’t identify you) #### Set a Nickname for Others If someone in a conversation isn’t using a nickname, you can assign one for them in your app. This won’t change how they appear on *their* device, but it can reduce how easily they are identified in your chat history or in screenshots. 1. Open a conversation you’re part of 2. Tap on the **profile/conversation name** at the top 3. Tap on the **person** you want to nickname 4. Tap **Nickname** 5. Give them a nickname (ideally, one that makes them harder to identify) That said, nicknaming everyone in a conversation is asking a lot. As a (perhaps obvious) alternative, just send them the instructions above so they can set their own nickname. 😉 **Keep In Mind**: No feature can stop someone from screenshotting a conversation. Disappearing Messages limit message history, and nicknames make people harder to identify, but screenshots (or photos of screens) are always possible. ### A Quick Look at Some Privacy Settings If you have not explored Signal’s privacy settings yet, there are some powerful protections you can enable right now. #### Open the Settings 1. Tap on your **profile icon** at the top 2. Select **Settings** from the panel Let’s go through a few: - **Chats** - One setting I recommend turning **off** is **“Use Phone Contact Photos.”** Similar to nicknames, the goal is to avoid pulling in identifying information about the people in your conversations. Displaying contact photos can make chats easier to trace back to real individuals. - This is also where you can **clear your chat history**—a useful option if you want to limit what remains on your device. - **Privacy** - **Phone Number:** In the **Phone Number** settings, you can control who can see your number and who can use it to find you. Make your own call here—personally, I have visibility set to **Nobody** and discoverability set to **Everybody**. - **Read Receipts & Typing Indicators:** I prefer to keep both of these off. I don’t need people to know when I have read a message or when I’m mid-reply. Just note that turning these off applies both ways—you will not see others’ read receipts or typing indicators either. - **App Security**: - **Hide Screen in App Switcher:** When you switch between apps and see the app preview screen, this setting ensures Signal only shows its icon, not your conversations. Turn that baby on. - **Screen Lock:** This lets you lock Signal using the same method you use to unlock your phone (PIN, Face ID, etc.). If your phone requires a PIN, Signal will too. You can also set a **timeout**, which controls how quickly Signal re-locks. I have mine set to **Instant**, but you can choose whatever feels like the right balance between security and convenience. - **Payments Lock**: I do not really use Signal for payments, but I keep Payments Lock enabled anyway, just in case. - **Calling**: You can control whether Signal calls show up in your phone’s recent calls list. I keep this **off**—I don’t need that extra record. - **Advanced**: The only setting I am somewhat undecided about in Advanced is **Always Relay Calls**. Enabling it hides your IP address, which can make it harder to determine where a call originates. If you are particularly concerned about someone learning your IP address, this may be worth turning on. For most people, this is probably not a major risk. I personally keep it **off**, but you should assess your own comfort level. I’ve got the rest of the Advanced settings disabled. ### Wrapping It Up Signal is a powerful privacy tool, but no app replaces good judgment. Be intentional about who you bring into conversations, how long messages stick around, and what you choose to share. **Privacy is not about paranoia—it’s about control.** The more you understand your tools, the more agency you have over your digital privacy. Keep on keepin’ on, KL ### Remove Yourself from People Listing Sites URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/remove-yourself-from-people-listing/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:35.000Z Hi friends, happy Thursday! Today, we’re talking about something that is especially dangerous in terms of your personal information being available publicly. Often, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and other personal information is freely available online on websites often called “data brokers” or “people finders,” and we’ve covered this a little before in an older post called “Google Yourself”. [Google YourselfHappy Tuesday, friends! This one could lead you down some rabbit holes, so I’d suggest grabbing a tea or coffee and settling in…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/0c1ebb0b-a056-4fd1-bd92-1e08b39df719_400x400.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/bc575b33-e211-464c-b8a3-700b30f6e21a_1920x1280-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/google-yourself/) I think most women already understand the risks that are posed when your home address and phone numbers are posted online. Stalking, doxing, and harassment are all dangers that come specifically from having this information out on the wide internet. Women are [disproportionately at risk of doxing](https://equalitynow.org/press%5Frelease/lack-of-legal-protections-against-doxing-is-putting-women-at-greater-risk-of-online-stalking-and-harassment/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), especially women of color, those in the LGBTQIA+ community, and other marginalized minority groups. Doxing is intended to silence women, especially women in public roles like politics, journalism, and activism. Unfortunately, getting this sensitive information removed from these data broker sites (and keeping it removed) is a tricky undertaking. It’s possible to make individual requests to these sites to remove your information (most of the time), and Incogni has a great set of guides for how to do it on various sites here: [https://blog.incogni.com/opt-out-guides/](https://blog.incogni.com/opt-out-guides/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (scroll down to the bottom to find their opt-out guides list). I want to be clear, however, that removing your information from these sites today will not guarantee it won’t pop up there again in a few months. You know I love to do things the free way, but this is a game of Whac-a-Mole. The best option, imho, is to just pay for a service to handle this for you, typically via a subscription (since they will continue to monitor and request removals on your behalf). That’s what I’m going to cover here. --- ## EasyOptOuts One great option is [EasyOptOuts](https://easyoptouts.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). They cover a TON of these data broker sites and they don’t require too much personal information from you to do that on your behalf. Plus, they’re easily the cheapest option I’ve seen at only $20/year. This is the one I’m going with fwiw. ## DeleteMe Another great option is [DeleteMe](https://joindeleteme.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). This one’s a little more expensive at $129/yr or $209/2 years if you pay annually, but it is a really popular option. I don’t think it covers quite as many sites, but they do have a big user base ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ ## Incogni The one that has the list of how-to articles that I mentioned above, [Incogni](https://incogni.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), also has their own paid subscription service. They clock in at about $180/year for their Unlimited plan, or about $100/year for their Standard plan. ## Aura If you’re looking for something a little more comprehensive, in addition to data broker removals, [Aura](https://www.aura.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) also provides Identity Theft Protection and Insurance, credit locking, VPNs and some other great privacy services for as low as $144/year for their Individual plan. ### Find yourself on a site that’s not covered by your chosen service? As I mentioned, I’m going with the cheap option (EasyOptOuts) personally, but I did come across my personal information on a site that’s not included on their list. For this situation, I’ve got one more excellent resource for you: [YourDigitalRights.org](https://yourdigitalrights.org/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) has a great tool where you can search for the data broker site, and they will compose an email for you including where to send it, and optionally to receive follow up instructions from them in case there are further actions you need to take. --- ### A Quick Note About Paid Services In the interest of protecting your privacy (because it’s literally what we’re doing here!), **I do not use affiliate links**. I gain nothing if you decide to use one of these services or any other service I didn’t mention here. I suggested these because they’re respected and vetted options, that’s all. If you use one of these, I’d love to hear your experience with it, or if you use something else that you love, I’d love to hear about those too! I have no skin in this game—I just want you to have the best protection possible. Keep on keepin’ on, KL [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### Delete your account—part 4. URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-you-accountpart-4/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:35.000Z Hi friends! Ok, I’m like 4 or 5 weeks late with this one, but you know what? We’re here now. I’ve been trying to do less on the computer when I don’t have to be, and maybe soon you will too! Let’s get right into it! # Submit Your Accounts for Deletion Yep, you read that right—you’ve [updated your logins](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-1/), you’ve [downloaded all your data](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-2/), you’ve [manually removed content](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-3/) maybe, and now it’s finally time to delete, delete, delete! Let’s run down the list… ## Facebook & Messenger They’re a bundle set, so deleting Facebook will also delete Messenger. **Start here (sign into your account first if needed):** [https://accountscenter.facebook.com/personal\_info/account\_ownership\_and\_control](https://accountscenter.facebook.com/personal%5Finfo/account%5Fownership%5Fand%5Fcontrol?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - Select **Deactivation or deletion** - Select the account to delete - Select **Delete account** (it’s a radio button selection) and click the **Continue** button - Tell them why you’re leaving (maybe because you have a privacy concern?) - Keep going through the process (they’ll give you some warnings and whatnot, feel free to read through, but hopefully you’ve already downloaded your data and you’re good to go!) - You’ll be prompted for your password eventually, enter it to continue - Finish the job! ## Instagram & Threads Good news! The process is the same as for Facebook above! Do it again, but this time select your Instagram account! (If you don’t see it, try signing in again with your Instagram login in case it’s not connected to your Facebook profile.) To the best of my knowledge, it looks like if you delete the Instagram account that your Threads profile is linked to, you will also be deleting your Threads profile. Another two-fer! ## WhatsApp Gotta do this one in the app. - Open the app and go to **Settings** - Tap **Account** - Tap **Delete my account** - **Enter your phone number** and tap **Delete my account** ## Twitter/X **Start here (sign into your account first if needed):** [https://x.com/settings/deactivate](https://x.com/settings/deactivate?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - Click **Deactivate** at the bottom - **Enter your account password** and click the big red **Deactivate** button Your account will be deleted after 30 days if you don’t log into it again, so don’t log into it again. ## TikTok Gotta do this one in the app too, so open the app first! - In the TikTok app, tap **Profile** at the bottom - Tap the **Menu** ☰ button at the top - Tap **Settings and privacy** - Tap **Account**, then tap **Deactivate or delete account** - Tap **Delete account permanently** - Tell them why you want to leave (go ahead and choose **Safety or privacy concerns** if you’re not sure) - Tap **Continue** - They’ll show you any tasks to complete (usually money based)—if you have money to take out, do that first! - Continue through the instructions until you’ve deleted it! ## It’s a wrap! Well, we’ve done it! The four part series of deleting all your social media accounts and sticking it to Zuck and Elmo is over! If you didn’t finish, or it wasn’t the right time for you, I get it! This series will still be here when you’re ready, and I’d guess the instructions will be pretty much the same (though they do like to move around those menus, don’t they?). Anyways, I hope you found this helpful, and I hope you feel a little bit lighter when it’s all done. You might even find yourself texting your friends, or even better, making plans to see them in person rather than feeling like you did because you’ve seen their profile picture on the internet somewhere. We’ll get back to our regular programming just as soon as I feel up for it! Keep on keepin’ on, KL ### Question from a reader: Why delete your social media accounts? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/question-from-a-reader-why-delete/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:36.000Z Happy Monday, friends! I know you JUST heard from me yesterday, but if I’m being honest, with the speed at which things are moving in the world I could be writing you every day with some fresh update about how your privacy is being exploited… but I’m not a monster. [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) Today, I’m actually writing you because I received a great question in response to [yesterday’s post](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-3/): > I'm getting all sorts of posts from you about all the things we should do to delete content from various types of social media, but I seem to be missing the why. How can we know what is at stake so we can make good decisions for ourselves? It's really hard to understand when we're getting considerable value from some of these sites. This is a great question, and one that I’m sure many of you are also grappling with, so let’s talk through it together. I managed to make it 3Ps for your consideration: Privacy, Perspective, and Politics. ## Privacy We’ve gone over the [many](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-social-media-apps/), [many](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/stop-googling-start-duckduckgoing/), [many](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/), [MANY](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/sign-in-with-email/) ways that these companies exploit your data for their profit. What data are we talking about? Let’s break it down so we’re all very clear on this one. Let’s start with the metadata (metadata is the stuff that you don’t explicitly tell a company, but they collect by accessing what you do). So what are they collecting? - **Location history:** where you’ve been, what you did there, and even who you were with. - **Contact history (calls, texts, messages):** who you contact, the frequency in which you contact people, when you contact them (dates and times), your location when you contacted them, and the contact information of those people—not to mention that [text messages are completely unencrypted](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-sms-text-messages/) and can be easily intercepted. - **Web history:** if you are logged into these services or have them installed on your phone, they also likely have access to your web history—they can likely see what websites you visit, what you do on those websites, and how frequently you visit them. - **Photo details:** photos you upload contain metadata about where they were taken, what sort of device they were taken with, who took the photo, and even who is in the photo. - **Device details:** they can tell what device you’re using, what operating system it uses, where it’s located, and since that device is connected to the internet, they can also see every other device that’s connected to that network. Consider the implications of this in a school—one device with Facebook Messenger installed and connects to the school wifi can share details about every other device connected to that network with Facebook. - **Other app data:** if you use social media apps on your phone, they can also read data from other apps on your phone—ever looked something up on Amazon and then see an ad for it on Facebook immediately after? Not a coincidence. Ad networks are shared across apps. None of that is even taking into account the actual actions that you take on these sites. Let’s just talk about Facebook for a minute. Here are a few actions you might have taken and some questions for you to consider: - **Like or follow a pages:** What’s the page about? Is it a hobby or interest? Is it a local neighborhood group? Is it political? Is it a place you shop? Is it a company you’ve worked with? Is it a disability community? Now, consider how many pages you’ve followed. What do YOU think they could gather from this? - **Search the marketplace:** What did you look for? How far were you willing to travel to get it? Did you meet up with the person who was selling it? Did you pay full price? What do YOU think they could gather from this? - **Make a post:** What do you write about? Did you share a link? Where was the link from? Did you read the whole thing before you shared it (yes, they probably know)? How did people react to it? Did they laugh? Were they angry? Were you angry? What do YOU think they could gather from this? - **React to someone else’s post:** What was it about? News? Were you angry about the news? Were you joyful? Facebook creates a psychological profile of you based on how you react to content you see. Heart a post your friend made about breaking up with her abusive ex? Angry at an article about Roe v Wade being overturned? Laughed at a post from Jezebel? You’re probably a pro-choice, white, liberal woman who is between the age of 25 and 45\. You might be into crafting or reading, and you may be diagnosed with ADHD or an anxiety disorder. And that doesn’t even take into consideration all that metadata we already talked about. If you want to see for yourself what they’ve collected on you, go ahead and [open up that download you requested](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-2/). Besides details like your full call histories, your private messages (they’re not encrypted by default), and details about all your contacts, you’ll also find personal details about your own demographics including but not limited to your inferred race, age, gender, where you live, your hobbies, interests, net worth, medical conditions, political leanings, and on and on. Don’t believe me? Open it up, see for yourself. And remember, if they have it, they’ve sold it. ## Perspective Now, I’m not here to tell you how to live your life. I’m here to keep you informed about the implications. I’ll even be here to challenge you on some of those decisions, but only to open you up to the possibilities that exist outside of these platforms. #### Running a Business For instance, maybe you run a business or you’re an artist. You might think that not having a Facebook page or Instagram profile means that no one will ever find your work—and maybe you’re right! I’m not here to suggest you’re wrong, though plenty of businesses are successful without social media—but if that’s the case, then you should protect yourself. We’ve gone over many ways to adjust privacy settings, what to leave off of profiles, how to delete (some of) what they know, even just generally giving tips like removing those apps from your phone. And I’ll continue to do that. However, if you want to try something different, might I suggest having your own website where you control and own the content (you do not own anything you post on social media, and it can be deleted by them, without cause, at any time), and creating a mailing list of devoted fans [which also happens to have the highest ROI of any marketing investment](https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/what-is-the-roi-of-email-marketing/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). #### Staying In Touch Maybe Facebook or Messenger is the only way you can keep in touch with friends and is essentially your long-distance network. I hear that. I had probably close to a thousand friends when I deleted my accounts back in 2017. You know what I did? After I removed a bunch of people from my friends list that I no longer kept in touch with, I downloaded the remaining folks’ birthdays from Facebook (yep, that’s a thing you can do), uploaded them to my personal birthday calendar, and if I have their number (because I ACTUALLY know them IRL), I send them a birthday text to let them know I’m thinking of them. This usually leads us to chat and reconnect for at least a few minutes, get some quick life updates, and generally acknowledge that we still care about each other. And isn’t that better than sending (or receiving) a post once a year that gets maybe 2 seconds of view time and a thumbs up? If you want to replace Messenger, ask your friends to [switch to Signal](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-sms-text-messages/) for actually private conversations. You’d be surprised how many people are also starting to consider their privacy and will be interested in moving to a platform that ensures that. If there’s someone you truly want to get in touch with, you can and will find a way. #### Communities Maybe you’ve found your people in a group or a page. I get that, too. It’s hard to connect with people offline, especially around niche hobbies or interests. While I encourage everyone to find their local community, especially in uncertain times, I also encourage you to simply move your online communities elsewhere. There’s no requirement that a community must live in a Facebook group. Consider finding a similar Reddit community or creating a private Discord server for your group (if one doesn’t already exist). While these are not perfect alternatives (they both collect data, and Discord messages are not encrypted), this part might come down to… ## Politics We all have to make decisions that are based on our own personal values. I can’t tell you what you should value any more than you can tell me what I should value. For me, knowing how the money these companies make off of my data is being spent affects my interest in using those platforms—in much the same way that my aversion to milk is heavily influenced by the affects it has on my lower intestine. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (Facebook and all its affiliates), is a [misogynist](https://futurism.com/facebook-women-hate-speech?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) whose first major web project was a [hot or not website that he used stolen student ID images of women on campus to create](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/11/19/facemash-creator-survives-ad-board-the/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). He’s [not a person who has ever cared about others’ privacy](https://www.vox.com/2018/4/10/17220290/mark-zuckerberg-facemash-testimony?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), though he seems to [care about his own](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJeySsOR4Bk&ref=womensprivacyproject.org), and he has never shown any remorse or [faced any actual recourse for his deliberate invasions of privacy](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/27/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-breach-lawsuit-ends-in-11th-hour-settlement?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). (Facebook allegedly paid the FTC $5B—$4.9B more than necessary—to [keep Zuck’s name out of the Cambridge Analytica complaint](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/24/facebook-overpaid-in-data-settlement-to-avoid-naming-zuckerberg?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). A sum which, for the record, would have been about 26 days worth of income for Facebook when it was paid in 2019—and, for reference, only 14 days worth of income in 2023.) None of that is to mention the recent policy changes across Meta with regard to [fighting misinformation](https://www.newsweek.com/zuckerberg-ends-meta-fact-checking-trump-takes-office-live-2011107?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [rolling back DEI protections](https://www.axios.com/2025/01/10/meta-dei-programs-employees-trump?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), and [Zuck et al. just generally being losers](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/i-knew-one-day-id-have-to-watch-powerful-men-burn-the-world-down-i-just-didnt-expect-them-to-be-such-losers?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Zuck isn’t alone, though. Let’s not forget about Elon. Elon who, you ask? Remember when he [said he was buying Twitter to ‘help humanity’](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63408384?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [tried to get out of it](https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-4193a27d86458952542dfa2176150a01?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [failed](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/elon-musk-offers-to-end-legal-fight-pay-44-billion-to-buy-twitter?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [showed up at the office carrying a kitchen sink](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/26/elon-musk-twitter-visit-sink?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [fired 80% of the staff](https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/elon-musk-confirms-he-has-fired-over-80-of-twitter-employees-so-far-377045-2023-04-12?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [offered people 3 months severance](https://abcnews.go.com/Business/commit-hardcore-leave-elon-musk-tells-twitter-employees/story?id=93411363&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and [then never paid them](https://www.reuters.com/legal/elon-musk-beats-500-million-severance-lawsuit-by-fired-twitter-workers-2024-07-10/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)? The one who’s [trying to do the same thing to the federal government as we speak](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/tech/elon-musk-government-cuts-twitter-takeover/index.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)? This guy? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/d0ec2f92-eb2e-4fc6-b1fa-0fc94009c642_480x460.gif) THIS guy?? - [USAID officials put on leave as Elon Musk says time for agency to ‘die’](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/2/3/usaid-officials-put-on-leave-as-elon-musk-says-time-for-agency-to-die?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - [Exclusive: Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - [Musk Says DOGE Halting Treasury Payments to US Contractors](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-02/musk-says-doge-is-rapidly-shutting-down-treasury-payments?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - [Elon Musk’s PAC spent an estimated $200 million to help elect Trump, AP source says](https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-america-pac-trump-d248547966bf9c6daf6f5d332bc4be66?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - [Musk causes uproar for backing Germany’s far-right party ahead of key elections](https://apnews.com/article/germany-election-musk-far-right-afd-welt-915cc6821cd48c3168a7895b1d1c1a35?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) THIS GUY??! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/c583437b-49ca-4b47-b843-f41326bc34cc_260x144.webp) Enough said. Finally, let’s not leave TikTok out of this, it IS on our list after all. Now, do I buy that the company is delivering user data straight to the Chinese government? Not really, but I can’t say that with certainty. What I can say is that [there have been some changes](https://www.reuters.com/technology/am-i-being-censored-some-us-tiktok-users-say-app-feels-different-after-ban-2025-01-25/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) recently [that suggest the company is likely to be sold to one of these bozos](https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/01/20/meta-bought-tiktok/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (not to be confused with Bezos—different oligarch with different privacy implications). So, am I focused on these two guys in particular? Yes, for the purposes of this particular series. There are plenty of other companies and folks I can, and likely will, focus on in the future, but we’re talking about social media right now, and these guys are the keepers of pretty much all the keys (they literally bought all the other keys). **When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.** **—Maya Angelou** ## Final Thoughts I’m not here to tell you how to think or what to do, I’m just here to inform on matters of privacy and explain how to act on those ideas—what you do with that information has to align with your own perspective and your own values. So what do I think is at stake? Democracy, but that’s just me ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ —KL [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### Delete your account—part 3. URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-3/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:36.000Z Hi friends, I know I’m a day late with this one, but there’s a lot going on ok? Cut me some slack. Here’s our next installment of Delete Your Account! Once you’ve got your download—**wait until you get the download**—I HIGHLY recommend deleting all of your content manually. Yes, it will (probably?) be deleted by them eventually (maybe), but why let them have it any longer than necessary? Don’t give them the option to keep you on as a ghost profile. ## What should I delete? ### Facebook To see an overview of all your activity, logs, etc. from Facebook and remove it, check this page: and this page: (click on “Delete your information” to select which account(s)). There are SO MANY TABS on that page, clicking through this information alone will probably make you want to barf when you see how much they know about you and what you do on and off of their platforms. **If you see an option to clear the data they’ve collected in there as you’re clicking around, just do it.** **Here’s what I would also remove:** - **Even if you do nothing else here:** Delete your **profile details** (this is in that same Settings area from above)—things like birthday (change it to something random), email addresses, phone numbers, change your name even to something random if you can, relationship statuses, anything and everything should be either removed (if possible) or falsified (if not) - Delete all the **photos** you’ve uploaded and remove tags from photos you’re in - Delete all the **posts** you’ve made - Unlike/unfollow any **pages** you’ve liked - Remove all your **friends** Just keep deleting until there’s nothing left! This could take awhile, and if you give up, I certainly won’t hold it against you. It’s the account deletion that’s most important anyways. #### Fake Them Out (Optional) If you’re REALLY wanting to throw them off your scent, when you’re finished deleting everything you can from your Facebook account (and you have no friends), some people suggest liking random pages you don’t care about, clicking on ads for things you’d never buy, posting random content, basically, anything you can do to dirty up the data they already have on you to destroy the profile they’ve created of you from data. ### Instagram Deleting all your posts on Instagram can be done as a group, Mashable has a great step-by-step guide for this so I’m not going to rehash it here: [https://mashable.com/article/delete-all-instgram-posts](https://mashable.com/article/delete-all-instgram-posts?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) Also unfollow any pages, remove any followers from your page, and delete any profile information. You can also try going here: (click on “Delete your information,” select your Instagram account, and see what they’ve got). ### Messenger **Messages:** It would seem you have to delete each message manually if you want to remove it (explained here: ) **Chats:** You can delete the chat threads themselves too, but as best I can tell they will still be visible to the other person who was in the chat previously. **Contacts:** To delete all your contacts, go here: and click the button that says “Delete all contacts.” ### WhatsApp 1. In the app settings, go to Chat backup and turn Auto backup OFF (and delete any previous backups). 2. Go back to “Chats” (still in Settings) and tap “Delete all chats” (scroll down to the bottom to find it). 3. If you gave WhatsApp access to your contacts, you can go into your PHONE Settings (not in WhatsApp), go to Apps, find WhatsApp, and remove permission for Contacts. 4. Leave any “Communities” you may have joined as well. ### Threads I admit, I’ve never used Threads, and we didn’t cover downloading your data specifically from Threads but there’s a guide here for that: [https://help.instagram.com/259803026523198](https://help.instagram.com/259803026523198?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). As far as deleting your content goes, I assume it’s a lot like the rest of Meta’s products—remove all your posts, unfollow anyone you follow, and remove any followers you have. ### Twitter/X Same deal as above—you want to delete all your posts, remove all the pages you follow, remove all your followers, remove your profile details, etc. There are some tools out there that can help with this. If you’re using [Brave browser](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/) (or Chrome, bleh) this extension looks pretty good (and possibly free), though I haven’t tried it personally: [https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tweet-delete-bulk-delete/mppblpedoemekekejafmcopafmkagkic](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tweet-delete-bulk-delete/mppblpedoemekekejafmcopafmkagkic?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### TikTok Yep, another annoying one. I believe you’ll have to just delete all your videos individually. If someone knows a better way, I’m open to it, but I can’t find anything to help with this one! Don’t forget to delete your profile information too. ## A Note About Ads Throughout this process, if you come across any settings that say “Ad Preferences” or “Ads,” I recommend opening those up and seeing if there are any ways to delete what they’ve already collected about you. Most of these apps have that as an option, but it’s a LOT to cover each version of that since some of them keep this information in multiple places to convolute the removal process (I’m looking at you, Zuck). I’ll just say, if you see something that looks like that, go in and delete anything they’ve got in there too. --- GEEZ LOUISE that’s a lot to cover… and a lot to do! I know this is a messy process, and this is one of the steps that I would say take at your own pace or maybe even skip altogether if you’re feeling overwhelmed! The important thing is to not give these companies any MORE data (or money!) than they already have by NOT USING THEM, and ultimately DELETING THESE SERVICES FOREVER. We’ll get to that part next week I think. For now, you’ve got plenty to keep you busy! Keep on keepin’ on, KL ### Delete your account—part 2. URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-2/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:37.000Z Hi friends! Welcome to Part 2 of the Delete Your Account series! ICYMI, Part 1 covered disconnecting your social media accounts from other accounts (i.e. no longer sign in with Facebook/Twitter). **If you missed Part 1, here it is (do this before Part 2):** [Delete your account—part 1.Hi friends!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/0c1ebb0b-a056-4fd1-bd92-1e08b39df719_400x400-1.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/122aa878-6300-4de4-b0cd-2e8f7e9b39dd_1200x800.png)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-1/) All right, let’s get to it! You probably have many years of content that you might want to keep (even though you’ll likely never look at it again, I should know). Just in case though, let’s get your stuff saved. I’m going to cover as many services as I can here, so look below for **Facebook** (Meta-owned), **Instagram** (Meta-owned), **Facebook Messenger** (Meta-owned), **WhatsApp** (Meta-owned), **Twitter/X** (Elon-owned), and **TikTok** (Meta-owned? Who’s to say…). If you’re looking for something else, I recommend searching the web for “\[service name\] download data” and you’ll probably find a way! **I’ll give a quick note before we get into it:** Whenever possible, I recommend doing this on a desktop/laptop computer rather than your phone (you will see this is not always possible, but when it is, it’s better). I also included direct links to certain areas in the middle of the instructions in case you want to go directly to the setting. Those links SHOULD work as long as you’re logged into the service, but I included full instructions in case they don’t. **Finally, once you’ve completed this process, STOP USING/INTERACTING WITH/POSTING ON THESE SERVICES.** --- ## Download Your Data from Facebook Here’s a full article on how to do it from Facebook: And here’s my version: #### On the Facebook website (not mobile): 1. Click on your **Profile icon** in the top right corner 2. Click on **Settings & privacy** 3. Click on **Settings** 4. In the panel on the left side of the screen, scroll down to **Your information** 5. Click on Download your information 6. Click the **Continue** button (it will take you to the Account Center to download your data) **Here’s a direct link to this point (which *should* work):** [https://accountscenter.facebook.com/info\_and\_permissions/dyi](https://accountscenter.facebook.com/info%5Fand%5Fpermissions/dyi?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) 1. Click the **Download or transfer information** button 2. Choose if you want to download **Available information** or **Specific types of information** (this one’s up to you, take as much or as little as you like) 3. Select which profiles you want to download data from 4. Start that download It can take some time, and I think they email you with a link when it’s ready (if the process is the same as it was when I left 8ish years ago). --- ## Download Your Data from Instagram Here’s a full article on how to do it from Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/181231772500920?helpref=faq\_content And here’s my version: #### On the Instagram website (not mobile): 1. Click **More** in the menu to the left of your feed 2. Click **Settings** in the pop-up menu 3. Click **Accounts Center** at the top of the menu… it’s easy to miss even though it’s big and at the top, they made it look like an ad or something (look for the Meta logo) 4. Once in the Accounts Center, click **Your information and permissions** **Here’s a direct link to this point:** [https://accountscenter.instagram.com/info\_and\_permissions/](https://accountscenter.instagram.com/info%5Fand%5Fpermissions/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) 1. Click **Download your information** 2. In the pop-up, click the button that says **Download or transfer information** 3. It will ask how much information you want, it’s up to you but if you’re not sure choose **All available information** (it doesn’t hurt to take a peek into the **Some of your information** option—you can always go back, but there are a LOT of checkboxes and you might not care to download absolutely everything) 4. **Choose** how you want to save the information: 1. **Download to device**: Creates a downloadable file that you can store anywhere you’d like on your computer 2. **Transfer to destination**: Allows you to directly save the download to Google Drive or Dropbox 5. **Select the date range**—I’d recommend going with **All time** 6. Change your email address if you need (this is where you’ll be notified the download is ready) 7. Keep the format as **HTML** if you’re not sure 8. **Select the media quality**—I’d recommend changing it to **High** if you really want the images you’ve uploaded 9. Click **Create files** and wait for the download (it can take awhile depending how much content you’ve got up there, but when it’s ready it’ll show up in this same spot and you can download it) --- ## Download Your Data from Facebook Messenger I admit, I don’t have a custom way for you to do this one. Here’s a link to how to do it from Meta: It only works on the app (Android or iOS) so select which one you’ve got when you get there and follow the instructions! **Always be aware that downloaded chat messages are no longer encrypted. You can store them on encrypted drives, but the end-to-end encryption you might have in the app is not relevant anymore once they’re exported.** --- ## Download Your Data from WhatsApp If you want to save your chats in WhatsApp, you’ll have to do it one chat at a time. **Always be aware that downloaded chat messages are no longer encrypted. You can store them on encrypted drives, but the end-to-end encryption you might have in the app is not relevant anymore once they’re exported.** Here’s how save the chats you want: 1. **Open the chat** you want to save 2. Tap on the **contact/group icon** 3. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and select **Export chat** 4. Choose if you want media or not 1. **Attach media**: Select if you want to include any photos/videos 2. **Without media**: Select if you don’t want to include photos/videos 5. Click **Export** 6. A ZIP file will be created and you can choose where to send it—if you use Dropbox or Google Drive you can save it there, you can also just save it locally on your phone, or you can email it to yourself if you want—your choice 7. Rinse and repeat for each chat that you want to save --- ## Download Your Data from Twitter/X Here’s a full article on how to do it from X: [https://help.x.com/en/managing-your-account/accessing-your-x-data](https://help.x.com/en/managing-your-account/accessing-your-x-data?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) And here’s the summary: #### On the X website (not mobile): 1. Click **More** in the menu to the left of your feed 2. Click on **Settings & privacy** 3. Click on **Your Account** **Here’s a direct link to this point:** [https://x.com/settings/account](https://x.com/settings/account?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) 1. Click on **Download an archive of your data** 2. Enter your account **password**. 3. **Verify** your account with email or phone number (they’ll send you a code to enter) 4. Click **Request archive** #### On X mobile app (Android or iPhone/iOS): 1. Tap your **profile** icon 2. Tap **Settings and privacy** 3. Tap **Your account** 4. Tap **Download an archive of your data** 5. Enter your account password 6. **Verify** your account with email or phone number (they’ll send you a code to enter) 7. Tap **Request archive** --- ## Download Your Data from TikTok There’s no easy way to download all of your data from TikTok (to my knowledge), but if you want to save your videos you can either download them all individually or use a paid service to help you. Or, if you’re willing to get into some coding, there may be another way. [This article from The Verge covers all those options](https://www.theverge.com/24343890/tiktok-bulk-save-how-to?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), so I won’t repeat them here. --- ## Final Notes Most of these services will email you or send a notification when your download is ready (they can take some time to prepare so look out for those notifications and be sure to go back and actually download them). Once you’ve saved everything from your accounts, store it somewhere safe—preferably an encrypted drive—or at least stored locally on your personal computer. As I mentioned in the beginning, **now is the time to stop using these services**. You’ve saved everything you posted, nothing new should be added at this point. Remember, we’re saying goodbye! --- If you have any questions or thoughts going through this process, I’d love to hear from you! You can reply to the email or leave a comment on the post in Substack. I’ll try my best to respond and help you get through this process! Look out for Part 3 next Saturday—Remember: this is a marathon, not a sprint! Keep on keepin’ on, KL ### Delete your account—part 1. URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-accountpart-1/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:37.000Z Hi friends! I’ve gone a long way around trying to avoid this suggestion, but I can’t any longer. This is going to be part 1 of 4-5 part series that I’ll be sending on Saturday morning(ish) for the next few weeks to help you completely delete these data hungry social media apps. As always I will try my best to make this process as straightforward and painless as possible, but there’s a lot we tie up mentally, emotionally, and even physically in some cases into these apps and I don’t take that lightly. You have to do what’s right for you, and I understand that leaving entirely may feel impossible and I’m not here to force you into something you’re not ready for, but I feel that I would be doing you a disservice to avoid suggesting it outright any longer. I actually had a whole article ready to go about how you should cull some of your friends lists for the sake of privacy. It’s great—it features Aunt Cheryl and one of her incredible internet reviews, and it covers how having less of the people you don’t know gives you more of the people you do, etc. It was a good read, truly. Thing is, I can’t in good conscience suggest that that’s doing enough. It’s too late for that. It’s time to leave. Changing privacy settings, removing people you don’t know, deleting the data they’ve collected already… it’s all good stuff, but ultimately it’s just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and most of it is too little, too late. They take, take, take from you all the time. They take from your family, from your friends, they take from everyone everywhere you go. As soon as you turn off one privacy stealing ‘feature’, three more will pop up like an endless game of whak-a-mole. This is a process I went through myself in 2017 that admittedly took me several tries, but ultimately has been better for my mental health, my relationships, and my privacy, and I want that for you too. If Facebook (I’m looking at you, too, Messenger) is the primary way that you communicate and keep in touch with your people, it’s time to get them all on [Signal](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-sms-text-messages/) and create some *actually* private conversations and group chats. If Instagram is your primary avenue for promoting your business or your work, it’s time to get yourself a website and an email list. If X is your primary source of news and entertainment, it’s time to move to bluer skies (iykyk). Proponents of free speech and protectors of the first amendment understand that the best way to send a message to oligarchs is to vote with your feet. Your privacy comes at a cost, and it’s them that you’re paying. You’re literally filling their pockets with so much cash that they can use it to influence decisions at the highest levels and have enough left over to buy entire countries. People is data is money is influence is power. Leave, and you take away their power. I could give you a million more reasons to get rid of these services, none of which include the fact that their owners are trying to destroy democracy, but I’m not gonna bother, because deep down I think you already know what they’ve taken from you. I think you already see it in every ad you try to ignore, in every sponsored post you can’t imagine they could know you were interested in, in every like, share, and subscribe you thought was just for you. You already know, and for better or worse, you’ll see more as we go through this series. So let’s get started with Part 1\. I recommend doing all of this on desktop (it’s typically impossible or much more difficult to do on mobile), so dust off the ol’ PC and let’s get to it. --- ## Part 1: Remove Third Party Logins If you’ve ever used Login with Facebook or Login with Twitter/X we’re gonna have to do some account correcting. ### Removing Login with Facebook [I’ve recommended against using any social media to log into other services for awhile](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/sign-in-with-email/), but if you’ve already done it, we have to undo it now. First, check what websites you’ve used your Facebook account to log into. This link should take you straight to the connected apps in Facebook: Once in, you’ll see a list of any Active and Expired accounts that you use/d to log into with your Facebook account. The Active accounts are the ones you’ve logged into within the last 90 days, the Expired accounts haven’t been logged into within the last 90 days. **DO NOT CLICK THE REMOVE BUTTON.** Tempting as it is, you could lose access to your accounts—let’s do it the right way. #### Start with the Active accounts First, let’s deal with the Active accounts. Generally speaking, you’ll need to log into those apps/accounts, find the app’s security settings, and disconnect the Facebook login. You will likely be prompted to create a password with your email address—do that (and [always do that in the future](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/sign-in-with-email/)). **Quick Example—if SPOTIFY is on your list:** - Open Spotify, click on your **profile icon** in the top right corner - Click **Account** - Scroll down to **Edit login methods** - Once in, you’ll want to click on **Add a new login method** which will prompt you to sign in again (with Facebook, presumably), do that - When you log in again, you will be prompted to set up an email and password combination, do that - Now, go back to that Facebook settings page and click the “Remove” button next to Spotify You should do this for every **Active** account on the list. These are the accounts you’re currently using, so they’re the priority. #### What about the Expired accounts? Well that’s sort of up to you. If you want to make sure you can continue to get into those accounts, you might want to log back into them and do as suggested above. Go to the app’s settings, find the security section, and create a password for the account. Then feel free to remove it from this list. If it’s something old that you no longer use or care about, go ahead and just click the Remove button and never think about it again. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ ### Removing Login with Twitter/X This link should take you straight to the connected apps in Twitter/X: [https://x.com/settings/connected\_apps](https://x.com/settings/connected%5Fapps?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) You’ll have to follow the same steps as above to FIRST set up email/passwords for each account that you still actively use, THEN go back and click into each one and click **Revoke app permissions** to remove access. --- All right, I know this was a long email, but I promise the next few will have considerably less introduction. Next week, we’ll get into downloading your data from each of these services, even if you never look at it again. I’d love to hear how this process goes for you also, so please feel free to respond to this email if you run into anything or have any thoughts as you’re going through it (if you’re going through it, of course!). Delete, delete, delete! KL ### Have you been pwned? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/have-you-been-pwned/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:38.000Z Happy Tuesday, friends! I’ve got just a little tip for ya today. This one’s about a website I’ve been using for awhile, but it occurred to me that you might not! ### What is it? It’s a website, [haveibeenpwned.com](https://haveibeenpwned.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), that serves one purpose: to let you know if your email address and/or password has been found in a data breach… or as the kids would say, “you got pwned.” It was created by a white hat security pro (one of the good guys that tries to break into systems to make sure they’re secure) named Troy Hunt and is now run by him, his wife Charlotte who manages the operations, and an engineer named Stefán Jökull Sigurðarson, who helps maintain the codebase and cloud infrastructure from his home in Iceland. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/bb55f6c0-bfd1-4868-9cd4-949665655823_1000x566-1.png)](https://haveibeenpwned.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### How does it work? On [the main page](https://haveibeenpwned.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), if you enter your email address, it’ll let you know if that email appeared in any data breaches since *at least* 2008 (that’s when my earliest breach was at least… *thanks, MySpace*). On [the passwords page](https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), you can also enter any common passwords you’ve used in the past, and it’ll let you know if those passwords were compromised as well. How do they do it? Well, they pull in data from various data breach sources and when you enter your info, the site runs a check against the breached dataset. If it finds your info, you’ve been pwned. Pretty simple. ## What should I do if I’ve been pwned? If your email address has been pwned—which if you’ve had it for more than a few years, there’s a really good chance it has—check if your password was also leaked in the breach (it’ll tell you which specific data was compromised below the breach description). Depending on what was leaked, you should change any passwords associated with those accounts and **never use those passwords again**. In the future, [use a password manager](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/manage-your-passwords/) and generate your passwords! [Manage Your PasswordsHappy Tuesday, friends! I’m kind of excited about this post since I’m a huge proponent of password managers. Once again, we’re switching lanes a little bit and talking about security with just a hint of privacy. Let’s get right to it!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/0c1ebb0b-a056-4fd1-bd92-1e08b39df719_400x400-2.png)Women's Privacy ProjectKL![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/63a63a15-11a8-4f24-884b-9f1427939082_1920x1440-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/manage-your-passwords/) You should also consider deleting any accounts that you don’t use anymore. If you see a breach from an old site or service that you no longer use, visit the site to see if it’s still active, and if it is, delete your account altogether. If it’s not active anymore, you still need to retire that password **forever** because that information is already out there. **These bad actors expect you to reuse your login credentials, so they try the breached creds on other sites to see if they work there, too. Never reuse passwords!** --- ### Is this site safe? What an excellent question to ask! You’re getting the hang of this whole privacy thing, I can tell! Yes. Troy and the team don’t personally collect any data (when you enter an email or password it’s checked immediately against a storage database and the results are returned, but what you enter isn’t logged). No one is collecting the email addresses or passwords that you enter on the site. The only caveat is that the website itself, like most websites, has some trackers on it which could send info like which pages you visited, what type of computer you’re using, demographic information [stored in your browser with cookies](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-but-like-what-are-cookies/), and potentially other metadata to various data hungry sites like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft (among others). Is it ideal? No, but no more problematic than visiting any other website with trackers (for that, you could consider [switching to Brave](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/)). --- That’s it for today! I hope you haven’t been pwn3d too badly, but if you have, you know what to do! K33p 0n k33p1n' 0n, KL ### Ok, they might be listening. Sometimes. Maybe. URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-they-might-be-listening-sometimes/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:38.000Z Happy Friday, friends! Well, [we’ve talked about this one before](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/are-they-really-listening-to-you/), but now we’ve got some new info! Apple just agreed to pay a $95M settlement (which still needs to be approved by a judge) in a lawsuit brought against them for allegedly activating Siri surreptitiously on iPhones, Apple Watches, and other Apple devices and subsequently selling those recordings to advertisers. And lest you think this sort of lawsuit is unique to Apple, there’s also a similar lawsuit pending against Google and their voice assistant by the very same lawyers. *Read more on* [*Reuters*](https://www.reuters.com/legal/apple-pay-95-million-settle-siri-privacy-lawsuit-2025-01-02/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) *and* [*AP News*](https://apnews.com/article/apple-siri-iphone-lawsuit-settlement-9b8ab3e079ae6962435f38eddb937b39?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)*—you might be eligible for part of the settlement.* While Apple has admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, I think we’ve all experienced a virtual assistant activating when we didn’t ask it to, so let’s just prevent that from happening altogether, shall we? **Quick note:* We’re only disabling the voice activations “Hey Siri”/”Hey Google” here, not the actual assistants. These assistants can be disabled altogether if you want, but that’s not what we’re doing here.* --- ### Turn off “Hey Siri” listener on iPhone #### On newer iOS devices: 1. Open **Settings** \> **Apple Intelligence & Siri** 2. Tap **Talk & Type to Siri** 3. Tap **Off** for Siri/Hey Siri activation ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/403b32fb-16e4-479e-a436-766da6404b3d_1366x897.png) #### On older iOS devices: 1. Go to **Settings** \> **Siri & Search** 2. Turn off the switch next to **Listen for Hey Siri** ### Turn off “Hey Google” listener on Android 1. Open **Google** app 2. Tap your **Profile Icon** 3. Tap **Settings** 4. Tap **Google Assistant** 5. Tap **Hey Google & Voice Match** 6. Turn off the toggle next to **Hey Google** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/29151f6d-4e0d-4986-b3f0-3d7a483a8685_2193x897.png) That should do it for today! Look out for that settlement claim notification, wouldn’t wanna miss out on that $20 windfall… Keep on keepin’ on, KL ### Women's Privacy Project 2.0 URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/womens-privacy-project-20/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:39.000Z Happy new year, friends! I know it’s been a while (okay, like a year—yikes), but like Ms. Carly Rae, [I’m comin’ back for you, baby—I’m comin’ back for you!](https://youtu.be/Sy0A0pQmGPM?si=pvXGFUBAd2xMxS9d&t=167&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) When I first launched the Women’s Privacy Project, the idea was simple: give my gals some easy-to-follow tips to protect their privacy online, and explain in simple terms why it matters. It was going great, loved it, got some great feedback, but then I ran out of steam. [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) I didn’t give up on my interest in helping you protect your privacy, though, so it’s time to expand on the idea because as the late great Schoolhouse Rock taught me some years ago, “knowledge is power.” **The more things change…** Like the physical world, the digital world is also beholden to the second law of thermodynamics—it’s always getting more complex, more varied, and more chaotic. It’s a world of constant flux, new invention, new exploits, and fun new ways of mining the most data for the lowest price. To that end, I’m adding some new post types to cover more about what’s going on, in real human words. **…the more they stay the same.** Protecting your digital privacy and understanding what’s happening is just as important today as it was a year ago. In fact, many of the same tools and tips I shared last time are just as relevant today, so that’s cool, right? I’m gonna be updating some of those to hit new marks, explain some new privacy tech (and the ups and downs that go along with them), and keep providing those step-by-step guides to incrementally improve your digital privacy. **If you’re looking forward to it, tell a friend!** Lots of new content is in the works for this year, and if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter in the past, please send it to a friend who can also benefit from it! Data collection is only valuable if it’s collected en masse, so let’s spread the word to protect each other! Also, this is a labor of love. I’m planning to keep this newsletter free for as long as I can personally support it, but if you feel like [buying me a highly caffeinated tea to keep me going](https://donate.stripe.com/8wMbLVdUwdpb9s4aEE?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), I will drink the sh\*t out of that. Looking forward to spending a little more time in your inbox this year, hope you are too! —KL [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### Delete Your Social Media Apps URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/delete-your-social-media-apps/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:39.000Z **Happy New Year, everyone!** I know I’ve been MIA for a while, but I’m back (hopefully) with some fresh privacy content! I’ve been thinking about what this newsletter should be moving forward, and while I like the format we’ve been running with so far, I feel like I’m running low on ideas (or at least brainstorming them is taking a toll), so if there’s anything about digital privacy YOU want to know more about, please send your thoughts/suggestions to womensprivacyproject@pm.me, and I’d be happy to take a deep dive! Now, let’s get to today’s privacy tip! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/7a62a2a1-8eec-40ed-af9b-17c6244e767d_2400x1347-jpeg-1.jpg) *Photo by* [*dole777*](https://unsplash.com/@dole777?utm%5Fsource=unsplash&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcontent=creditCopyText) *on* [*Unsplash*](https://unsplash.com/photos/EQSPI11rf68?utm%5Fsource=unsplash&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcontent=creditCopyText) ## What am I suggesting and why? Remove all social media apps from your phone, and instead—if you must—use your phone’s web browser to access them. Social media apps are data hogs—they’ll take whatever they can get from your device, including your location, your call history, [your contact list](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-selling-out-your-friends/), your chat and text logs, and even [data from other apps installed on your device](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/disable-ad-tracking-on-your-phone/). You can limit what these services have access to by using them strictly on your web browser rather than installing their mobile apps and letting them vacuum up your privacy. #### An added bonus? If one of your New Year’s Resolutions™ is cutting back on social media usage, this is a great way to kick the habit of mindlessly opening and scrolling your feeds! No more red dots, no more notifications screaming for your attention… bliss. --- ## You in? Let’s go! Ok, nice and easy now… you’re gonna just go ahead and delete the apps. Go on, give that Facebook/Twitter/TikTok/Instagram app icon a loooooong press, then tap that minus sign or tiny x, or if necessary, tap the big red “Remove App” followed by the also big red “Delete App”. That’s it! You’re free! #### Still want an icon for quick access? If you’re not looking to break free entirely, you can always visit the website (e.g. facebook.com) on your phone’s default web browser (Chrome for Android, Safari for iPhone), and you can add that website to your home screen. **iPhone** 1. Open **Safari**. 2. **Type in the web address** of the site you want to add to your home screen to visit the website (e.g. facebook.com). 3. When the website is open, tap the **Share** icon in the bottom menu. 4. Select **Add to Home Screen**. 5. You can change the name to whatever you want, then tap **Add**. You can move the icon around like any other app icon. **Android** 1. Open Chrome. 2. **Type in the web address** of the site you want to add to your home screen to visit the website (e.g. facebook.com). 3. When the website is open, tap the **three-dot menu** icon in the top right of the screen. 4. Select **Add to Home Screen**. 5. You can change the name to whatever you want, then tap **Add**. You can move the icon around like any other app icon. --- ### Dig Deeper While this is not a perfect solution for protecting your privacy from social media giants, it’s a good first step. In all honesty, the next best step is deleting your social media profiles altogether, but even then, social apps have a history of creating so-called ‘ghost’ or ‘shadow’ profiles as they track you around the internet. The only way to truly escape the eye of social networks is to delete your accounts and block ads, cookies, and social buttons (something [a good VPN can handle for you](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/vpns-arent-just-for-vips/)). And yes, I know that’s not a small ask. A smaller ask might be suggesting that you log out every time you leave a social media website, but admittedly, they don’t make that easy since it’s much easier for them to follow you around the internet, building up your profile when you’re logged in. We can only do what we can do, and that’s why this newsletter exists! Hopefully, one small step in the direction of privacy leads to another small step, and eventually, all our small steps add up to a long walk! So let’s keep on truckin’! ### Un-Share Diagnostic Information URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/un-share-diagnostic-information/ Last updated: 2022-11-22T16:12:03.000Z Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone! I hope you’re taking a break! Today we’ve got a pretty straightforward one, so let’s get to it! ## What am I suggesting and why? When you first set up a new device or service, they will often ask if you’d like to share diagnostic information with the manufacturer. Generally, this information is used to see how the devices are commonly used and claims to contain no personally identifying information. We’re learning that’s not always true. Let’s un-share. **Cost:** Free **Duration:** 10 Minutes, depending on the number of devices you’ve got **Ease:** Very Easy --- ## You in? Let’s go. I’m going to go through a number of devices here, so find the ones you own and focus on those! ### For Desktops and Laptops #### MacOS (Apple Computers) — Ventura (the newest update) 1. Open the Apple  menu at the top left of the menu bar. 2. Select **System Settings**. 3. Select **Privacy & Security**. 4. Select **Analytics & Improvements**. 5. Turn **off** all the toggles (you may need to enter your computer password). #### MacOS (Apple Computers) — Anything before Ventura 1. Open the Apple  menu at the top left of the menu bar. 2. Select **System Preferences**. 3. Select **Security & Privacy**. 4. Go to the **Privacy** tab. 5. Select **Diagnostics & Usage**. 6. **Uncheck** all boxes (you may need to enter your computer password). #### Windows 1. Click on **Start**. 2. Select **Settings**. 3. Select **Privacy**. 4. Select **Diagnostics & Feedback**. 5. Choose the **Basic** option. 6. If you scroll further down, you’ll see some toggles. Turn **off** the toggles next to *Diagnostics & feedback* and *View diagnostic data*. 7. Click the **Delete** button under *Delete diagnostic data*. 8. If you scroll even further, you should see a section *Feedback frequency*. Select **Never** from the dropdown menu. ### Mobile Devices #### iPhone / iPad / iOS 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Tap **Privacy & Security**. 3. Near the bottom, tap **Analytics & Improvements**. 4. Turn **off** all toggles. #### Android (All Android Devices) 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Tap **Google.** 3. Tap the **three-dot menu icon** (also called the kebab menu, I just found out) in the top right corner. 4. Tap **Usage & diagnostics**. 5. Turn **off** **Usage & diagnostics** toggle. #### Samsung Android Devices Samsung also collects diagnostic data separately from Google, so if you have a Samsung Android, you should do the above for All Android Devices) *and* this one. 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Tap **Privacy**. 3. Turn **off** **Send diagnostic data** toggle. 4. A popup may appear asking what information you’d like to share with Samsung. **Uncheck** **all** options and tap **OK**. ### Don’t see your device? If I haven’t covered your particular device, like your Kindle, or if you’re seeing slightly different menu options for the ones listed above, you can still turn these settings off. One option, search the web. I suggest searching the terms “Turn off diagnostic data \[name of device\],” and you should find instructions. In general—check the device settings, look for a privacy/security setting, and you’ll likely find the diagnostic information in there. ### How can you prevent this? When you set up a new device for the first time—be it a computer, a phone, or any other electronic that connects to the internet—it’s likely going to ask you almost first thing if it can collect diagnostic data about your device usage. Always say no. --- ## Dig Deeper We’ve been led to believe that this diagnostic information couldn’t be linked back to us personally, in fact, every single disclaimer on these when you first set up your device makes that very claim. We’re finding, however, that this isn’t always true (and honestly, at this point, it seems to rarely be true). #### What data is typically included in these diagnostic analytics? If you head into the fine print, you’ll find they’re likely collecting data about your hardware and software, the performance of the device (like battery), and most importantly to us, data about how you use your devices and applications. It could also include your location, information about your Wi-Fi signal or mobile connection, and may be linked to other data the company collects about you on other devices (like connecting your iPhone diagnostics to your Mac diagnostics). Since it’s unclear which companies collect which information and what personal information might inadvertently be included in those diagnostic reports, I suggest turning them all off across the board. #### Learn More - “Apple Device Analytics Contain Identifying iCloud User Data, Claim Security Researchers” [MacRumors](https://www.macrumors.com/2022/11/21/apple-device-analytics-identifying-user/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Should You Share Your Data With Tech Companies?” [Consumer Reports](https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/should-you-share-usage-analytics-data-with-tech-companies-a3858502782/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### It’s Election Day! URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/its-election-day/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:39.000Z _No content available._ ### Manage Your Passwords URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/manage-your-passwords/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:40.000Z Happy Tuesday, friends! I’m kind of excited about this post since I’m a huge proponent of password managers. Once again, we’re switching lanes a little bit and talking about *security* with just a hint of *privacy*. Let’s get right to it! ## What am I suggesting and why? Download a password manager and use it properly. We’ll walk through what a password manager is, how it can help protect your accounts, and best practices for using one. **Duration:** 30 minutes - several hours, depending on how much you want to set up at one time. **Ease:** Medium—take your time with it, it’s a lot to wrap your brain around at first, but it gets easier the more you use it! **Cost:** Free ### What is a password manager? As the name suggests, it manages your passwords! You should have a unique password for each of your accounts, but remembering a billion passwords isn’t possible. Best practices for passwords also suggest they should include upper and lower case, special characters, etc. There’s just no way to keep all of that in your brain, so most people default to 1-2 password combinations that they use across many accounts. The problem is, of course, if one username or email and password combination is leaked, this could wreak havoc on any other accounts using the same combo. A password manager can generate unique passwords for all of your accounts, and give you access to your login credentials with a click or tap. All *you* need to remember is *one* very, very good password. *And don’t forget that password.* ### My web browser saves my passwords, isn’t that enough? [Absolutely](https://www.bullguard.com/blog/2019/07/why-you-shouldn-t-save-passwords-in-your-browser?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [not](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-you-should-never-allow-your-web-browser-to-save-your-passwords/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Your web browser is not a secure place to house your passwords. For one, they’re easily broken into. For another, your passwords aren’t typically password protected (there are a few exceptions, but it’s still *very* easy to get past). Basically, if someone has access to your computer, they also have access to all your passwords. No bueno. Bitwarden doesn’t know what your passwords are. They’re encrypted, and only when you enter your master password is your vault decrypted for you to access it. No one without your master password can ever decrypt your passwords. Don’t ever use your master password for any other account, and don’t lose it. --- ## You in? Let’s get started… First off, we need to get you a password manager. I recommend [Bitwarden](https://vault.bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#/register?layout=default), it’s my go-to these days since I’ve had mediocre experiences with 1Password, and LastPass (my old fave) is now paid if you want to use it on more than one device (which you will, trust me). #### 1: Start Using Bitwarden 1. Sign up for a [Bitwarden account](https://vault.bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#/register?layout=default). **Please note: When you are creating your Bitwarden password, make sure it is a completely unique and secure password, and *don’t forget it*! You should never, ever use your Bitwarden password on any other account that you create or reuse a password you’ve used on any other account as your Bitwarden master password.** 2. Download the [Bitwarden extension](https://bitwarden.com/download/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) for your web browser. 3. Start saving your passwords to Bitwarden as you log into your accounts! If you saved your passwords in your web browser previously, it’s possible to import those into Bitwarden. It’s easiest from [Chrome/Brave](https://bitwarden.com/help/import-from-chrome/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [Firefox](https://bitwarden.com/help/import-from-firefox/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), and [Safari/MacOS](https://bitwarden.com/help/import-from-safari/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (instructions for each linked). For everyone else (or if you just want to go with a slow transition), just start logging into your accounts like usual, and Bitwarden will ask if you want to save your password to Bitwarden. Say yes! #### 2: Turn Off Your Browser’s Password Saver Now we want to stop our own web browser from asking us to save passwords. We *only* want to save them in Bitwarden from now on. I’m not going to walk through all the different browser instructions since Bitwarden has a [great walkthrough for many browsers](https://bitwarden.com/help/disable-browser-autofill/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) already. #### 3: Delete Saved Passwords from Your Browser (with a Caveat) **Only delete these after you’re *absolutely sure* you’ve got all your passwords saved in Bitwarden.** If you exported them and then imported them to Bitwarden, go for it. If you’re playing the long game and only saving passwords as you go, don’t delete these yet or you may have a tough time accessing your accounts. #### 4: Generate Passwords From Now On 1. Anytime you sign up for a new account, open your Bitwarden extension (I suggest pinning it to your browser toolbar), and click “Generator” at the bottom. Let Bitwarden create a password for you! 2. Copy the generated password, and paste it into the password fields when you create a new account. 3. Once you finish creating the account, Bitwarden will ask if you want to save the login, and of course, say yes! #### 5: Start Changing Your Insecure Passwords You can see how secure your passwords are using Bitwarden’s reports function. 1. Visit [https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/reports](https://vault.bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#/reports). 2. You should look at all the reports, but focus particularly on the first three ([Exposed Passwords](https://vault.bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#/reports/exposed-passwords-report), [Reused Passwords](https://vault.bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#/reports/reused-passwords-report), and [Weak Passwords](https://vault.bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#/reports/weak-passwords-report)). 3. Change passwords that have been exposed, reused, or are considered ‘weak’ (meaning they’d be easy to figure out). Prioritize changing any passwords that show up in the “Exposed Passwords” report. These are already compromised and need to go immediately! For the rest, take your time! It’s hard to do it all at once, but if you know you’ve got a password you reuse often, it’s a good idea to start changing those passwords as you log into those accounts. I’ve been using password managers for years, and I still have a good handful of weak and reused passwords. No one is perfect, just do your best! ### We’ve covered your web browser, but what about your phone? Still pretty easy! Download the Bitwarden app for [iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bitwarden-password-manager/id1137397744?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) or [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.x8bit.bitwarden&hl=en%5FUS&gl=US&ref=womensprivacyproject.org)! Both iOS and Android also allow Bitwarden to auto-fill your account information when you try to log in somewhere. #### Auto-Fill Passwords For Android 1. Open your Bitwarden Android app and tap the  **Settings** tab. 2. Tap the **Auto-fill Services** option. 3. Toggle the **Auto-fill Service** option. You'll be automatically redirected to an Android Settings screen. 4. From the Auto-fill Service list, tap **Bitwarden**. 5. Confirm you trust Bitwarden. [See detailed instructions.](https://bitwarden.com/help/auto-fill-android/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) #### Auto-Fill Passwords for iOS 1. Open the iOS **Settings** app on your device. 2. Tap **Passwords**. 3. Tap **AutoFill Passwords**. 4. Toggle AutoFill Passwords on and tap **Bitwarden** in the Allow Filling From list. [See detailed instructions.](https://bitwarden.com/help/auto-fill-ios/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) --- ## Dig Deeper Passwords aren’t the only things you can store in your vault. There’s also an option to save secure notes, so if there are other important or private notes you need saved, I’d recommend putting them in your vault as well. One good use for this is when you use [2-Factor Authentication](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/what-is-twomulti-factor-authentication/) (which you should!), you may get a list of codes that you need to store in case you aren’t able to use a different method of authentication. I store these right in my password manager for safe keeping. You can also store things like credit card numbers, addresses, social security numbers, etc. *Just be sure whenever you put all your eggs in one basket that that basket is securely locked.* #### Learn More - “The Best Password Managers to Secure Your Digital Life” [Wired](https://www.wired.com/story/best-password-managers/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “The Best Password Managers” [NYTimes](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-password-managers/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Are Password Managers Safe?” [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/01/20/are-password-managers-safe/?sh=76b06096ba13&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Sign In with Email URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/sign-in-with-email/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:40.000Z Happy Tuesday, friends! People love to talk about login *security*, but today we’re talking about login *privacy*. There might still be a dash of security though, it’s unavoidable. ## What am I suggesting and why? When you sign up for an account and they offer you to **Sign in with Google** or **Sign in with Facebook**, don’t do it. Choose the email option instead. Also, review your Google and Facebook accounts for a list of websites and apps you’ve already granted permission for and revoke access. Why? First, Google and Facebook track you all over the web already—now you’re also telling them everything you *do* on every website or app that you use their sign-in for. Second, if you consider all the personal information stored in your Google and Facebook accounts, the websites and apps you use those logins on may be able to access a lot more personal data than you expect. *For simplicity’s sake, when I say ‘app’ throughout the rest of this article, know that I mean ‘website or app,’ and I’m referring to a third-party app or website, not Facebook or Google.* --- ## You in? Let’s go! We’ll walk through how to check what you’ve signed in with on each site and revoke access as needed! #### Sign in with Google 1. **Visit** [https://myaccount.google.com/permissions](https://myaccount.google.com/permissions?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). 2. First, you’ll see “Third-party apps with account access.” These are apps that you allowed to access your data, but you didn’t necessarily use “Sign in with Google.” 3. Below that, you’ll see “Signing in with Google.” These are apps that you used your Google account to sign into. If you remove access from these, you may need to create a login with a password on those sites afterward. 4. For both lists, clicking on the name of the app will show you what permissions that app has. If you don’t want the app to have access to your information, click **Remove Access**. Then click **OK**. #### Sign in with Facebook 1. Visit . 2. Here you’ll see a list of all the apps that either you’ve signed in with your Facebook account or given permission to access your Facebook account. 3. If you click **View and Edit** next to one, you’ll see what permissions the app has. If you don’t want the app to have access to your information, click **Remove**. When you click Remove, you’ll also have the ability to “Delete posts, videos, or events \[app\] posted on your timeline” and “Allow Facebook to notify \[app\] that your login connection was removed. They may offer you another way to log in.” Both of these are up to you. If it’s an app you never use, I’d probably suggest removing their posts, but not notifying them because who cares? If it’s an app you currently use, I’d probably recommend checking the second box at least because you might need to create a password to continue using the account. #### What about Sign in with Apple? (Apple-Users Only) This one is trickier. There are [mixed opinions](https://www.engadget.com/2019-06-04-sign-in-with-apple-privacy-security-google-facebook-wwdc.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) on this one, and I find myself torn also, but overall I’m OK with *Sign in with Apple* for a few reasons. First, Apple doesn’t *sell* user data like Google and Facebook (they may use it internally though—I’m not giving them a total pass), but at least you know where your data is. They also have an option to *not* send the app your personal email—they can generate an email address to send to the app and then route any messages sent to it to your personal email address. It’s honestly better for security *not* to use your real email address when signing up for accounts, so it’s a W. I have used this option a few times. When I use it, I change my name (you can enter a different name if you want) and I never share my real email address (check the box that says “Hide My Email”). ### Don’t Forget about *Security* in your Quest for *Privacy* The benefit of using any of these sign-in options is convenience. You only need to remember one password, and your credentials aren’t actually sent to the third-party app. This is technically better for *security*—unless someone gains access to your Facebook or Google account, of course. In general, unless you’re using unique passwords for every app you sign up for (which you *absolutely* *should*), these options might actually be better *security* for you. Every app that has an account associated with it has the potential to be hacked. If you use the same email/password combo for all your accounts, one breach can be detrimental. That said, after you remove access from these apps, you will likely be prompted to create a password. **This is your reminder to create a unique password for each of your accounts.** Maybe next week we’ll dip into security with an overview of password managers. They’re great. Spoiler alert, I use [Bitwarden](https://bitwarden.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) these days, it’s free. --- ### Read On - “She clicked sign-in with Google. Strangers got access to all her files.” [The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/21/sign-in-google-facebook/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) *The headline’s a bit dramatic, but they make some good points overall.* - “Time to ditch the Facebook login: If customers' data should be protected, why hand it over to Zuckerberg?” [The Register](https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/04/delete%5Ffacebook%5Flogin/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Experts weigh in on Apple's private sign-in feature” [Engadget](https://www.engadget.com/2019-06-04-sign-in-with-apple-privacy-security-google-facebook-wwdc.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) *There’s some healthy debate in here, which I appreciate.* - “Sign In With Apple: Why This Security Feature Matters, And How To Use It” [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2020/03/09/sign-in-with-apple-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it/?sh=5ceb93211b65&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) *Also a pretty good overview of Apple’s sign-in service.* ### Google Yourself URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/google-yourself/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:40.000Z **Happy Tuesday, friends!** This one could lead you down some rabbit holes, so I’d suggest grabbing a tea or coffee and settling in… ## What am I suggesting and why? Exactly what it says! Google yourself! Go to [google.com](http://google.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and type in your full name. Have a common name? Type in your name and your state. Still too common? Type in your name and the name of your workplace. You’ll almost certainly find something. Look through the many pages of results and find all the pages that are actually about you. Open them up and see what you find. You may find very personal details like where you live currently, places you’ve lived in the past, places you’ve worked, phone numbers, email addresses, etc., etc. Request this information to be removed from Google and also from the websites that hold the information, if possible. Repeat for other search engines ([yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [duckduckgo.com](http://duckduckgo.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [search.brave.com](http://search.brave.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [bing.com](http://bing.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)). --- ## You in? Let’s go… First, find yourself (see above). Look deep within the search results, and see who you really are. Or aren’t. Sometimes this stuff is just amalgamated from many sources and doesn’t make sense. ### Removing Results from Google If you find personally identifying information that you want to be removed from Google… 1. Open the search result in a new tab. You can do this by right-clicking on it and selecting open in a new tab, or you can hold CTRL or ⌘ on the keyboard and then click on the search result. 2. Look for the three-dot menu next to the search result. Click on it. 3. A panel will open that says “About this result”. 4. At the bottom of the panel, click Remove result. 5. They’ll ask why you’d like to remove the result. Select the appropriate option. 6. Confirm any information that is requested from within the search result (this is why I recommended opening the search result in a new tab, you may need to refer back to the website). You can track your removal requests (and be aware, they are *just* requests… Google is not required to comply with the request) by visiting their [*Results about you*](https://myactivity.google.com/u/3/results-about-you?pli=1&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) page. #### Removing Results from Other Search Engines Unfortunately, this is not as straightforward. Bing has a [Content Removal Tool](https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/bing-content-removal-tool-cb6c294d?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), but I had no luck with it. They say they’ll only remove content that is out of date or that are broken links, but when I submitted broken links they still threw an error. The other search engines don’t seem to have so much as a support page about removing content. They’ll just tell you… **Your best bet is to try and have the content removed from the site itself.** I did have some luck with this on a work aggregator called SignalHire. I just contacted them through their online chat, and the page about me was removed immediately. It may not be that simple with others, alas. --- ### Dig Deeper There’s not a lot that we have control over here in the U.S., but in other places (E.U. for example) there are data laws that help protect users’ privacy with search results. One big step in this direction was part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), informally referred to as the “[right to be forgotten](https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org).” There are no such federal protections here in the U.S. *Coincidentally, GDPR is also why you get all those* [*cookie notifications*](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-but-like-what-are-cookies/)*. Fun fact.* #### Learn More - “Right to Be Forgotten” [The First Amendment Encyclopedia](https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1562/right-to-be-forgotten?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Most Americans support right to have some personal info removed from online searches” [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/27/most-americans-support-right-to-have-some-personal-info-removed-from-online-searches/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Why the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ Won’t Make it to the United States” [Michigan Technology Law Review](http://mttlr.org/2020/02/why-the-right-to-be-forgotten-wont-make-it-to-the-united-states/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Quit Selling Out Your Friends URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-selling-out-your-friends/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:40.000Z Happy Tuesday, friends! This one goes out to my aunt (A.S.), though she doesn’t know why yet. She, and you all, are about to find out. ## What am I suggesting and why? Revoke contact access to any app that doesn’t need it, and delete the contacts that you may have already shared with them. If you give an app access to your contacts, you’re not only giving your *own* stuff away, you’re also selling out all your friends. This is a risky business for both privacy *and* security reasons—this part’s for you A.S.—because once that list is out there/sold/accessible/you name it, it can also be used pretty easily for phishing. Phishing, if you’re unfamiliar, is the practice of trying to get information or an action out of someone by pretending to be someone that person would trust. *A.S. may not even know it yet, but someone is currently using her name to phish her contacts list via email.* So let’s revoke some access, shall we? --- ## You in? Let’s go! **Before we dive in, let’s talk quickly about who/what *should* have access to your contacts.** Generally speaking, if you are using a communication app (like WhatsApp, phone, Messenger, email, etc.) it’s sort of inevitable that you’ll need to share your contact list with them. For pre-installed apps like the phone and your email, this may be shared by default, but honestly, every app *should* ask for permission. Outside of those, I don’t generally share contacts if prompted, it’s not necessary for most apps, and if you remove access and later find that it *is* necessary, just give it permission again. No biggie. Another quick distinction I want to make is you may have already given access to your contacts, and turning off that access doesn’t necessarily remove those contacts from that service. I’ll give an example in a minute, but **I just want to be clear: you may need to revoke the access, and *then* actually remove the contacts from the app/service.** Ok now I’m done, let’s go. ### iPhone Make sure you read step 5 before you complete step 4… I know it’s weird, I’m not perfect! 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Select **Privacy & Security**. 3. Select **Contacts**. 4. These are all the apps that have access to your contacts. **Turn off any that don’t *need* contacts access to function.** You’ll have to use your own discretion here, but really think about if that app *needs* to know who you know. 5. I recommend making a note of the apps that you turn off since you may need to go and delete your contacts from those apps also (remember, I mentioned this could be a two-parter—revoking access is not the same thing as removing your contacts list). ### Android Make sure you read step 6 before you complete step 5… I know it’s weird, I’m not perfect! 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Select **Privacy**. 3. Select **Permission manager**. 4. Select **Contacts**. 5. All the apps under “Allowed” have access to your contacts. **Turn off any that don’t *need* contacts access to function**—**tap on the app** you want to revoke access from, then tap **Don’t allow.** You’ll have to use your own discretion here, but really think about if that app *needs* to know who you know. 6. I recommend making a note of the apps that you turn off since you may need to go and delete your contacts from those apps also (remember, I mentioned this could be a two-parter—revoking access is not the same thing as removing your contacts list). ### After removing access, you might still need to remove your previously uploaded contacts… Once you’ve gone through your apps and revoked access, go into those apps and find the app settings (you might look for a 3-dot menu, a 3-line menu, a settings icon, or check your user profile). Here, look for a privacy section. You’re likely to find one in just about every app that asks for access to your data, but you may have to dig for it. If there’s a function to delete contacts that were previously uploaded, delete them. **I’ll walk you through an *example* with TikTok because don’t give your contacts to TikTok, but most apps follow a similar process:** 1. Open **TikTok**. 2. Tap **Profile** at the bottom of the screen. 3. **Tap the three-line menu at the top right of your profile page.** A small menu will pop up from the bottom of the screen. 4. Tap **Settings and privacy**. 5. Tap **Privacy**. 6. Tap **Sync contacts and Facebook friends**. 7. **Make sure the Toggle is turned off next to Sync contacts and Sync Facebook friends.** *It should be off already if you turned it off in the previous steps.* 8. Select **Remove previously synced contacts**. Approve the removal if prompted. 9. Select **Remove previously synced Facebook friends**. Approve the removal if prompted. ### Don’t Allow Access in the Future When you return to some of these apps or download new apps, you may see a prompt asking you for access to your Contacts. Err on the side of saying “Don’t Allow” unless you’re absolutely *sure* you *need* this app to access your contacts. --- #### So, what can A.S. do? It’s always a good idea when your contact list is targeted to make sure your email account hasn’t been compromised—this is a common method for stealing a contact list. In this case, I don’t think her email was hacked, but we always want to check there first. If the list was sold or permission was given to a nefarious app developer, unfortunately, there’s not much to be done for it. The list is already out there. It wouldn’t be a *bad* idea for her to let her contacts know that someone is pretending to be her, and perhaps advise them not to click on anything in emails that look like they’re coming from her unless they know for certain it *is* from her (like they had a conversation in advance for example). ### Dig Deeper - There’s a great site all about phishing and how to recognize a phishing scam when you see one called [phishing.org](https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). - There’s honestly not much out there about contact list privacy, sadly, but I will say that a tangential privacy concern here is your Facebook friends list (if you *have* Facebook, of course, which I do *not* recommend). You should always hide your friends list. There’s a good article about how to do that at [MakeTechEasier](https://www.maketecheasier.com/manage-hide-facebook-friends/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). ### Disable Ad Tracking on your Phone URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/disable-ad-tracking-on-your-phone/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:40.000Z Happy Tuesday, friends! We’ve got a quick win today—let’s get right to it! ## What am I suggesting and why? Turn off the advertising ID on your mobile devices. Basically, when you have multiple apps installed on your phone, the apps can talk to each other about who you are and what you do based on a profile they create of you attached to an ID that’s unique to you. They all work together to compile this profile by picking up bits of information from each other. In terms of your privacy, this means that what you do, view, and interact with on one app is given to another app, and you probably didn’t know they were even doing it. **Duration:** 5 minutes **Ease:** Very Easy **Cost:** $0 --- ## You in? Let’s go! This one’s pretty easy. Find your device below and follow the instructions! ### Android On Android 12 and up, you should be able to delete your ad ID permanently, and prevents apps from accessing it in the future. 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Tap **Privacy**. 3. Tap **Ads** (it’s near the bottom on mine). 4. Tap **Delete advertising ID**. 5. Tap the button **Delete advertising ID** on the next screen. ### iPhone / iPad iOS is a little better about this, they require apps to ask permission before tracking across apps at least. But if you’re tired of saying no, or if you’ve accidentally said yes, let’s fix you up. 1. Open **Settings**. 2. Tap **Privacy & Security**. 3. Tap **Tracking** (near the top). 4. **Turn off the toggle next to Allow Apps to Request to Track** (it should be grayed out, not green). This prevents future apps from asking for permission and just denies them all outright. 5. **Turn off any toggles next to apps that may have already been granted permission** below (they should all be grayed out, not green). **Take it one step further, and block Apple from tracking you too.** 1. Go back to **Privacy & Security**. 2. Tap **Apple Advertising** (near the bottom). 3. **Turn off the toggle next to Personalized Ads** (it should be grayed out, not green). --- ## Dig Deeper There’s a lot to dig into with this. Data is bought and sold all day every day. This ad ID links all the individual datasets to each other and to you, specifically. This ID is specific to your devices, meaning if this ID shows up in different datasets, the ad brokers can link them back together. This ID is also linked to your device, which means the data it’s collecting could include everywhere that you travel, spend time, who you’re with, where you live, and on and on and on. There are claims that this ID is anonymized, but think about it. If someone knows all those things about you, how anonymous is it really? Now, this isn’t a catch-all as far as ad trackers are concerned, but it’s a really important step to take to eliminate a LOT of what IS being tracked about you. I highly recommend checking out [this article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) to dig even deeper into how this all works if you’re interested, and while you’re there, check out some of their work. ### What is two/multi-factor authentication and why should you turn it on? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/what-is-twomulti-factor-authentication/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:41.000Z **Happy Tuesday, friends!** A small update—I took a week off last week for a little break, but we’re back this week with another explainer! I’m also switching us to Tuesdays instead of Mondays moving forward, so I can spend at least part of my Sundays in the sun! Today, we’re going to wet our feet with a little *security*, which certainly helps with *privacy*, but they are not the same thing. I generally avoid the topic of *security* in this newsletter, but I think this one is such an easy win to protect your accounts that we’re just gonna do it anyways! ## What is Two/Multi-Factor Authentication (2FA/MFA)? Naming-wise, I’m using these somewhat interchangeably. I think 2FA is more commonly seen in website security settings, so I’m defaulting to that, but the concept is the same. So here’s the deal. You have a username and a password—we all know about these. Now, if, for whatever reason, your username and password find their way into the wrong hands, anyone can sign in with those credentials. Two-factor authentication means the person trying to access your account would need an additional code to get in, which hopefully only YOU would have access to. The most common form of this is when you receive a text message with a code (usually just numbers) in it that you need to enter AFTER you’ve entered your username and password. ## Forms of 2FA ### Text Messages: Good This is the most common but the least secure form of 2FA. Basically, you give them your phone number, and they send you a text with an additional code to be entered when you log in. **Pros** - It’s easy to set up and use—you usually get a text message immediately and just enter the code you received. **Cons** - [Text message security sucks](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-sms-text-messages/), these can be intercepted. - Requires you to have cell phone service to receive the text message. - Pain in the butt if your phone number changes (or you use burner phones). - Can be easily phished (you might be directed to a fake version of a website, log in with your credentials, enter your auth code, and all those are captured by the fake site to be used by them on the real site). ### Authenticator Apps: Best for Most Users A better option is to use an authenticator app. An authenticator app creates a continuous stream of timed codes that you enter after you enter your username and password (kinda like the text message, but you already have the codes on your phone). There are a few authenticator app options, but the best one I’ve used is Google Authenticator ([Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2&hl=en%5FUS&gl=US&ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [iPhone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-authenticator/id388497605?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)). I’ve tried a few, but after a debacle of moving from Android to iPhone using the DuoMobile authenticator app, I’m back to fully recommending Google Authenticator. I’ve also heard good things about Authy ([Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.authy.authy&ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [iPhone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/authy/id494168017?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)), but I haven’t personally used it. **Pros** - Much more secure than text messages. - Doesn’t require cell phone service to work. **Cons** - It can be a little clunky when you have to switch apps to get the code. - Also switching to a new device isn’t always straightforward I’ve learned, but that’s partly dependent on the app you choose. - Can still be phished (but in this case, at least there’s a shortened time period for them to use the code, usually under 30 seconds). ### Physical Key: Best for Maximum Security If you care GREATLY about your account security, this is the choice for you. It’s not possible to intercept or get into an account unless you have the physical device. Basically, it’s a USB key that you plug into your device that doesn’t require any authentication codes. Some of these have the capability to work through NFC or Bluetooth also (for your mobile devices), but not all do. **Pros** - Best security option. - Very easy to use, just plug it in, and you’re done. Some people leave them plugged into their personal computers all the time, but if you go this route, make sure your computer itself has tight security. **Cons** - Not available on all websites. - May not work with your mobile devices, you would likely have to use a fallback method like the options above for your phone still. #### A Note About Recovery Codes When you set up two-factor authentication, you will usually also see a list of recovery keys. These are codes just like the ones you’d get via text or in your authentication app, but they’re for emergencies. If your device is lost, for example, and you no longer have access to the authenticator app or if your phone number changes, you will still need codes to be able to get in. The website will give you a list of these recovery codes at the time you turn on 2FA. **DO NOT LOSE THOSE CODES.** I personally keep mine in my password manager (we haven’t talked about those yet, but I’m sure we will) as secure notes, but it’s ok to store them locally on your computer as well or just write them down in a notebook. Whatever you do—keep them, and keep them safe. ### Push Notifications to Approve or Deny Some companies use a different kind of 2FA where you will get a push notification on your phone when you log in that asks you to approve or deny a login attempt. I’ve seen this most often with DuoMobile (another authenticator app), usually in enterprise settings (big companies/universities/etc.). Sometimes you’ll see these from Google or Apple also, where you might have to go to another of your devices to either retrieve a code or approve a login. It’s just another form of secondary security beyond simply using a username/password combination to access your account. **You should never approve a login attempt that you didn’t explicitly request!** ## How do I turn on 2FA? This depends on the site, but generally speaking, it will be an option in either your settings, your account area, or your profile, and it will typically be under “Password” or “Security” type headings). Not every website offers this function, but MANY do, and I ALWAYS recommend turning it on, *especially* for those accounts that could compromise the REST of your accounts, like your email! When you turn on this setting, usually you’ll get either an activation code or a QR code, you’ll enter or scan that in your authenticator app, and the app will immediately start generating codes for that website. Next, you’ll probably see recovery codes. Save those somewhere safe! After that, you’ll be prompted to enter the 6-digit code you see in the authenticator app to ensure you’ve got it set up right, and you’re done! ## Password-less Logins A related topic I want to touch on here is the password-free future the tech world is buzzing about. You may have seen this already in the form of ‘magic links’ or websites where you don’t actually log in with a username and password. Instead, you enter your username/email into the website, and they email you a link, you click it, and you’re signed in. Magic! Importantly, however, don’t click on one of those links if you didn’t request it. These should definitely have 2FA turned on to protect from accidentally logging someone else into your account. Apple also has been working on ‘passkey’ technology which is part of their recent iOS and macOS releases. Essentially, a passkey is a digital key that’s stored on your device (not readable by anyone, even Apple), which can be used to automatically authenticate you for different websites and apps using your biometric data (like Face ID or fingerprint). I could absolutely see this type of tech becoming more widespread considering all the big hitters want to move away from passwords in the future. ## Further Reading A reminder that security is only as useful as the people using it—never click login links in your email that you didn’t request, never accept a login request on your phone that you didn’t initiate, and never send your authentication codes to anyone: - **“Uber was breached to its core, purportedly by an 18-year-old. Here’s what’s known”** [ArsTechnica](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/uber-was-hacked-to-its-core-purportedly-by-an-18-year-old-here-are-the-basics/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) If you want to learn more about a password-free future: - “**Apple, Google, Microsoft Move Closer to a Password-free Future**” [InformationWeek](https://www.informationweek.com/security-and-risk-strategy/apple-google-microsoft-move-closer-to-a-password-free-future?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “**Apple’s password-free future is almost here**” [TechAdvisor](https://www.techadvisor.com/article/827391/apple-passkeys.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### VPNs aren't just for VIPs URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/vpns-arent-just-for-vips/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:41.000Z ### **What am I suggesting and why?** Start using a VPN—I’m recommending **ProtonVPN**. VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are a great way to keep your data private. Whether you use Xfinity, Verizon, Google Fiber, or any other internet service provider (ISP), they can not only *see* what you’re doing, but [they can also ](https://cybernews.com/privacy/isp-selling-data-why-you-should-actually-care/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)[*sell*](https://cybernews.com/privacy/isp-selling-data-why-you-should-actually-care/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)[ what you’re doing](https://cybernews.com/privacy/isp-selling-data-why-you-should-actually-care/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). A VPN hides what you do on the web even from not only *their* prying eyes, but anyone else who has access to the network you’re using. Public WiFi networks (like at cafes, grocery stores, or airports) are [the most dangerous](https://www.cloudwards.net/dangers-of-public-wifi/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) since *anyone* on the network can actually access your computer, along with the owner of the network. You should honestly never connect to any public WiFi network without an active VPN. **Duration:** 30 Minutes **Ease:** Easy **Cost:** Varies, but Free is an option --- ### **You in? Let’s go:** 1. Sign up for [ProtonVPN](https://protonvpn.com/pricing/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). You can choose their free plan if you want to test it out, or sign up for a paid plan. They also have [bundle plans](https://proton.me/pricing?ref=pvpncom) if you decide to use them for email, calendar, etc. 2. In your Account, find Downloads > ProtonVPN Clients. 3. You can download it for every platform—Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, etc. 4. Select your platform to download. 5. Once downloaded and installed, open it and click Quick Connect to start protecting your privacy. **To make sure ProtonVPN runs all the time:** 1. Open ProtonVPN. 2. Go to Preferences. 3. Under General, turn on Start on Boot. 4. Under Connection > Auto Connect, choose either Fastest or Random. Whichever you prefer, so long as it’s not disabled. #### **Want to take it one step further?** Use ProtonVPN on **all** of your devices. You can download ProtonVPN for [iPhone](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1437005085?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.protonvpn.android&utm%5Fcampaign=ww-all-2a-vpn-int%5Fwebapp-g%5Feng-apps%5Flinks%5Fdashboard&utm%5Fsource=account.protonvpn.com&utm%5Fmedium=link&utm%5Fcontent=dashboard&utm%5Fterm=android). If you are particularly tech-savvy, you can also install a VPN directly onto your home router and protect all of your connected devices at once, but this is a bit trickier to set up, and I wasn’t able to do it on my router. ProtonVPN does have [instructions](https://protonvpn.com/support/installing-protonvpn-on-a-router/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) to do it, though, if you’re interested in taking a look! --- ### **Why ProtonVPN?** Proton VPN is a Swiss company (not subject to US data requests), they don’t log any of your internet activity, and you can bundle it with other great private services like encrypted email, calendar, and digital storage (think Google Drive or Dropbox) for a reasonable price if you want. ProtonVPN also has a feature called *NetShield* that blocks ads and other trackers (remember [all that stuff about cookies](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-but-like-what-are-cookies/)? *those* trackers) by default whenever the VPN is active. Their [Android](https://protonvpn.com/download-android?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and [iPhone](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1437005085?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) apps also have *NetShield* ([at least for now](https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/30/google%5Fplay%5Fvpn%5Frules%5Fchanged/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), Android users), so you can block all those trackers on your phone too. #### **Are there alternatives?** Tons, but make sure you pick a reputable company. Remember, you’re sending *all your data* through their servers, so you want to ensure the company you get a VPN from is trustworthy. Look for privacy, encryption, and a no-logs policy. **Many free VPNs sell all your data to third parties *or worse***—defeating the purpose—so really read the fine print. If it’s ad-supported, you don’t want it. Personally, I’ve used [NordVPN](https://nordvpn.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (based in Panama) before and would highly recommend it, and I traveled the world with [PureVPN](https://www.purevpn.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (based in British Virgin Islands), both are really easy to use, get set up, and have no-log policies. ### **Want to learn more?** - “9 Reasons Why Everyone Should Use A VPN. Yes, Even Non-Techies.” [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/why-use-a-vpn/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “The Best VPN Service in 2022” [Tom’s Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-vpn?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (Lots of great options listed here) - “Why use a VPN: The advantages and benefits you should know about” [AndroidAuthority](https://www.androidauthority.com/why-use-a-vpn-1102560/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “When to Use a VPN—and When It Won’t Protect Your Data” [The Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/vpn-data-protection-privacy-tips-11662155750?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Internet service providers drop challenge of privacy law” [The Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/technology-lawsuits-united-states-maine-data-privacy-9b2a40a18839c16df732368ee04ea856?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) *(Way to go, Maine!! Now if we could just get it back on the federal books, we’d be in business…)* ### Google: What did you think of [insert place]? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/google-what-did-you-think-of-insert/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:42.000Z Happy Labor Day, friends (or maybe “Happy Tuesday” if you’re actually taking a day off today)! Hope you got to relax and have some BBQ! Let’s get into today’s tip. ## What am I suggesting and why? Google recently announced that it [would no longer track visits to abortion clinics](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/01/google-will-delete-location-history-for-visits-to-abortion-clinics.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (or, at least, it would delete them soon after), but it brings up a larger privacy concern—you may have agreed to store your entire location history with Google through Google Maps without realizing it. Let’s check and turn it off if needed. **Time:** 5 Minutes **Ease:** Very Easy **Cost:** Free *On a side note—I’m not much of an advertiser, so if you’ve been enjoying this series, would you mind sharing it with someone you think would be interested or find value in it? Thanks!* --- ## You in? Let’s go… The instructions below cover how to turn this off on different platforms, but just know that once you turn it off on one platform, it’s off for *your entire account*. **You don’t need to do this on every device!** ### First, let’s turn off the tracking. 1. Visit 2. Log into your Google Account if prompted. 3. Under **Location History**, click or tap the **Turn off** button. *If it’s already off, skip ahead to deleting the history in case it was previously on.* 4. Click or tap **Pause**. *You will need to scroll down first. They really don’t want you to turn this off, so they make it seem like the very fabric of the universe will collapse in on itself if you stop letting Google store your location forever—dark UX pattern, do not like.* ### Now, let’s delete the history. 1. Visit 2. At the bottom, tap or click the link that says **Manage history.** 3. Follow the instructions for the device you’re using below. #### On Desktop/Computer They really hid this one well. 1. If you’re not already on the Timeline, visit [**http://maps.google.com/timeline**](http://maps.google.com/timeline?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) 2. Look for the **Trash** icon. *Screengrab below because it’s really hidden in there.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/48601c06-3de5-4c6c-80ab-15c59a03e7cc_3064x1934.png) 1. Check the box next to **“I understand and want to delete all Location History.”** 2. Click **DELETE LOCATION HISTORY**. #### On Android/iPhone Instructions are the same for both devices. 1. Tap the **three-dot menu** in the top right corner on the Timeline screen. 2. Select **Settings and privacy**. 3. Under the heading **Location settings**, tap **Delete all Location History.** 4. Check the box next to **“I understand and want to delete.”** 5. Tap **Delete**. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/ec490ef4-b8bb-45f0-be67-e5f83292d47b_2304x1200-jpeg.jpg) *This is the Android view, but iPhone looks almost exactly the same.* --- ### Dig Deeper I don’t have much to add to this other than *storing your entire travel history in Google, or anywhere, is not a great idea*. I have to admit—I’ve had this tracking on since 2013, and it does occasionally come in handy when I can’t remember where I was on a certain day or when I last visited a certain restaurant. There are benefits to all of these services. You have to decide for yourself whether the benefits are worth sacrificing your privacy. While it may not be *exactly* true that if you’re not *paying* for the product, then you *are* the product, we can at this point at least agree that if you’re not paying for the product *with your money*, you’re paying for it *with your privacy*. #### Read On - “Google says it will delete location history for visits to abortion clinics after overturning of Roe v. Wade” [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/01/google-will-delete-location-history-for-visits-to-abortion-clinics.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Unredacted suit shows Google’s own engineers confused by privacy settings” [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/unredacted-suit-shows-googles-own-engineers-confused-by-privacy-settings/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Stop Googling, start... DuckDuckGoing? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/stop-googling-start-duckduckgoing/ Last updated: 2022-08-29T15:12:02.000Z Is it really Monday already? Well, happy Monday! We’ve got a quick win today—low effort, high impact! Let’s go! ### **What am I suggesting and why?** Change your default browser search engine to [DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Your search history, even if you delete it, carries breadcrumbs and assumptions used to create a story about you, the user. For example, if you search for baby products, Google might think you’re pregnant. If you search for diabetes symptoms, Google might assume you have diabetes. It’s rarely that explicit, but know that they can infer a lot about you from a series of searches and website visits. **Duration:** 5 Minutes **Ease:** Very Easy **Cost:** Free [Learn more about DuckDuckGo and test out their search engine >](https://duckduckgo.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) --- ### **You in? Let’s go:** #### On Your Computer ##### General Instructions 1. Open your web browser. 2. Find the browser **Settings** or **Preferences**. 3. Find the default search engine dropdown (there is typically a list of options to choose from). 4. Select **DuckDuckGo** from the list. The steps are slightly different for every web browser, so here are the steps for a few popular browsers: ##### Google Chrome 1. Open **Chrome**. 2. At the top right, click on the **three-dot menu** (it looks like three dots stacked on top of each other). 3. Click **Settings**. 4. Click **Search engine**. 5. Select **DuckDuckGo** from the list of search engines. ##### Safari 1. Open **Safari**. 2. Click the **search bar**. 3. In the left corner of the search bar, click the **magnifying glass**. 4. Select **DuckDuckGo**. ##### Firefox 1. Open **Firefox**. 2. In the small search bar in the top right of your browser, click **Search**. 3. Click **Change Search Setting**s. 4. Under “Default Search Engine,” select **DuckDuckGo**. #### On Your Mobile Device ##### iPhone / iPad 1. Open **Settings** \> **Safari**. 2. Under SEARCH, tap **Search Engine**. 3. Tap **DuckDuckGo**. ##### Android 1. Open your browser app—it might be called Internet, Browser, or Chrome. 2. Tap the **Menu** button on your phone or at the top right of the browser. 3. Tap **Settings** \> **Advanced** \> **Set search engine**. 4. Tap **DuckDuckGo**. #### **Want to take it one step further?** Get the [DuckDuckGo browser extension and mobile app](https://duckduckgo.com/app?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) to block Google’s trackers across the web. --- ### **Dig Deeper** #### **Why DuckDuckGo?** Privacy is key. There are no ad trackers—ever notice how you see the same ads on different websites after you Google something? We’ve [talked about cookies before](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-but-like-what-are-cookies/)—this is one way they track you. Also, your Google search results are altered based on your online activity (read: your personal data). You may have heard the term’ [filter bubble’](https://spreadprivacy.com/google-filter-bubble-study/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)—basically, you get different search results depending on things like your location, your demographics, or even your beliefs—whatever Google knows about you. With DuckDuckGo, you get unbiased results for your inquiries. Lastly, DuckDuckGo is widely available as a built-in option on just about every web browser. It’s an easy and worthwhile change to make. #### **Are there alternatives?** If you switch to [Brave web browser](https://brave.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), it has a built-in private search engine that works well and is just as private as their browser. #### Learn More - “The best private search engines for secure browsing” [NordVPN](https://nordvpn.com/blog/private-search-engines/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (also has great info about search privacy at the end) - “Measuring the ‘Filter Bubble’: How Google is influencing what you click” [DuckDuckGo](https://spreadprivacy.com/google-filter-bubble-study/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### ICYMI: Delete Your Period Tracker Apps URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/icymi-delete-your-period-tracker/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:42.000Z Happy Monday, friends! Today we **delete, delete, delete**! Let’s go! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/793f3ef3-cc3b-42d4-ba11-bd28c01c7dad_245x163.gif) **Duration:** 5-15 Minutes—really depends on how much data you want to save **Ease:** Very Easy **Cost:** Free ### **What am I suggesting and why?** Completely delete any period tracking accounts you have. Some big hitters are Flo, Glow, Samsung Health, and Apple Health. Tracking your period is a great way to understand your mental and physical health and predict when your next cycle should begin. Tracking can also be critical for telling exactly how far along you are if you do become pregnant. That said, if the government comes a-knockin,’ it’s best not to have your perfectly normal, irregular periods documented in an app subject to a data request. --- ### **You in? Let’s go:** **Save any data you want to keep before deleting any accounts.** For me, I actually manually documented my past periods in my private calendar. Glow has a data download, but it’s not very comprehensive. For **Glow** users: 1. Open Glow app. 2. Save any data you’d like to keep (at least your last period or two is helpful). 3. Tap the three-line menu in the top left corner next to your name. 4. Tap Settings (it’s near the bottom of the menu). 5. Scroll all the way down, and tap Delete Account. 6. Tap Delete Now on the popup. For **Samsung Health** users: 1. Open Samsung Health. 2. Tap Women’s Health. 3. Tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner. 4. Tap Settings. 5. Under Data, tap Delete Women’s health data. For **Apple Health** users: 1. If you use it: delete the Cycle Tracking app from your Apple Watch. 2. Open Apple’s Health app. 3. Tap Browse. 4. Select Cycle Tracking. 5. Scroll down and tap Options. 6. Disable cycle tracking. For **other period tracking app** users: 1. Open the app. 2. Find the app settings (this is usually where the delete function is, and it’s probably inside of a menu). 3. Find the option to delete your account and ensure it includes all stored data. ### **So, what can you use instead?** There are a few options. Personally, I moved all my data to [Proton Calendar](https://proton.me/calendar?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)—part of the Proton family of privacy-focused, encrypted digital services. No one can see your calendar entries, not even Proton. If you like getting notifications that your period is coming, I recommend logging your current period *and* your next predicted\* period. Set an alert on the calendar event for your next period to get a notification ahead of time. *\*If you’re unsure when your next period will be, start with 28 days from the start of your current period. Of course, everyone’s different, and you’ll start to see patterns with your own over time. Don’t forget to update your period prediction with the actual date it started to keep your log accurate!* I would also consider using an app like [Spot On from Planned Parenthood](https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-care/spot-on-period-tracker?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) *without an account*. For privacy reasons, Spot On allows you to use the app *without* entering your email address. If you go this route, just know that your data will be stored locally *on your device*—if you lose your phone, you lose your data. Finally, if you want to be 100% offline with your period data, treat yourself to a beautiful wall calendar, [preferably with kittens](https://www.amazon.com/EcoEarth-Biodegradable-Horizontal-Calendar-Adorable/dp/B099W9842J/ref=sr%5F1%5F2?crid=870RXB6NZ997&keywords=kitten+calendar+18+months&qid=1661115193&sprefix=kitten+calendar+18+month%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-2&ref=womensprivacyproject.org), and log it by hand! --- ### **Dig Deeper** - “Privacy experts recommend deleting period tracking apps as Roe v Wade abortion decision overturned” [News.com.au](https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/security/privacy-experts-recommend-deleting-period-tracking-apps-as-roe-v-wade-abortion-decision-overturned/news-story/eaa1f3e34a1b994adf64aeb34e45afa9?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Period tracking apps are no longer safe. Delete them” [ZDNet](https://www.zdnet.com/article/period-tracking-apps-are-no-longer-safe-delete-them/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Deleting Your Period Tracker Won’t Protect You” [NYTimes](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/technology/period-tracker-privacy-abortion.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (there’s more you can and should do) - “This Period-Tracking Method Doesn't Leave a Digital Paper Trail” [CNET](https://www.cnet.com/health/how-to-track-your-menstrual-cycle-without-an-app/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Ok, but like, what ARE cookies? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ok-but-like-what-are-cookies/ Last updated: 2026-02-18T16:17:42.000Z Happy Monday, friends! This post is a little different than the last few in that it’s our first explainer post! There will be some suggested tips for how to deal with cookies and best practices to protect your privacy near the end, but primarily we’re here today to understand what cookies are, what they’re for, and how you can protect your privacy. ### So what are cookies? Commonly called ‘biscuits’ in the UK, cookies are actually more like breadcrumbs than cookies, but ‘breadcrumbs’ means something else in web terms, so here we are. Basically, cookies are a bit of text code with an ID that’s been assigned to you *personally*, and they’re stored in your web browser’s *cache*. Some cookies allow websites to access this ID to see what you’re doing all over the web and can share or sell that information to ad networks or other websites. It’s like you’re leaving breadcrumbs around the internet. *See? If only that name wasn’t already taken…* Anywho, these types of cookies are called ‘**tracking cookies**’ and, as you might imagine, they’re the ones that give us some privacy concerns. #### Types of Cookies So there are a lot of types of cookies out there.. you’ve got your Thin Mints, your Fudge Shoppe cookies, your basic chocolate chip and sugar cookies… whoops, not those cookies... Actually, you’ve got your *persistent* cookies and your *session* cookies. **Persistent cookies** stay in your browser until they expire. You know like how you can just open your email no problem for like 8 months and then one day they’re like, “actually, can you sign in again for us?” Those are persistent cookies. So, when do they expire? Well, that depends on the amount of time specified by whichever site set the cookie. Could be a few hours, could be a few days, could be a few months or even a few years or never. **Session cookies** only last while that particular browser tab/window is open. These are the ones you expect to see on banking websites. Once you close the window or tab, the cookie expires and you need to log in again, and some might even expire before you close the tab (you might see something like ‘you’ll be signed out automatically in 120 seconds’). **Third-party** cookies are cookies that are created with the purpose of sending/selling your personal browser history (which websites you visit, what you look at, what you search for, etc) to third-party companies like advertisers or other websites interested in knowing what you do on the internet. ### Good Cookies vs. Bad Cookies Cookies actually serve many functions on the web and some are required for websites to function properly or just generally give you a good experience using the site. An example of a good *persistent* cookie might be like when you go to check your Amazon orders for the 34th time to see when your [Bonne Maman 2022 Limited Edition Advent Calendar](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D98XBX8?psc=1&ref=ppx%5Fyo2ov%5Fdt%5Fb%5Fproduct%5Fdetails) will finally arrive and you don’t need to sign in every time—it just remembers you. Yummy jam-filled cookie! Or maybe you’re shopping online and you’ve added a few things to your shopping cart. In order for the site to remember what you’ve put in your cart (particularly when you don’t have an account or you’re not signed in), it sets a tasty cookie! This cookie might be persistent *or* session. Once you close the browser window, your cart would be cleared if it was a session cookie. Get it? Tracking cookies, aka *third-party persistent cookies*, are the icky cookies that do things like show you the same ad on every website you visit for that pair of glasses you looked at that one time on EyeBuyDirect. These cookies are just barfing up your privacy all over the place. #### Now, what about those cookie notifications that are suddenly everywhere? What are they for? So, not too long ago in a land far, far away (Europe), there was new legislation created by the EU called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and these new rules sought to prohibit personal data collection and sharing/selling that information without explicit consent by the users. *Good, right?* Right! But ever since that fateful day, you’ve probably been bombarded with popups that tell you either “accept our cookies or get lost,” or tricked you into accepting their cookies rather than going through a long, confusing list of cookies that you can accept or reject individually. *You know the ones right?* [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/7a/c67a8e68-423b-4e2c-bcc2-eac3686864d7/content/images/2026/02/7ccab6d4-1328-42f4-bdd5-4ad39d6912cf_3104x1974.png)](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cookie-popup-blocker-gdpr?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) The irony of it all—it IS a good article though. Now, this is where you get some control on a website-by-website basis which cookies you’d like to have implanted in your browser. Some sites require you to just accept their cookies or leave, and others might have an option for you to control your cookie settings. ### So what *can* you do about cookies? **Take a minute to say ‘no’ to third-party cookies on those annoying pop-ups… if they let you.** As we talked about above, those pop-ups often (but not always) have a way for you to choose which cookies you want and which ones you don’t. They will try to trick you into accepting all the cookies, but *you don’t have to*. In general, it’s best to only accept the *required* cookies and then you can get back to reading about the [10 Reasons Why Cats Make Better Pets Than Dogs](https://www.thesprucepets.com/why-cats-are-better-than-dogs-554880?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). **Use a third-party cookie blocking browser extension.** Browser extensions are easy to install and typically run in the background so you don’t have to think about them. If you want a shortcut to manage all those cookie pop-ups from above, check out the [Consent-O-Matic](https://consentomatic.au.dk/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) browser extension. It automatically applies your preferred cookie settings to all the sites with those pop-ups. [uBlock Origin](https://ublockorigin.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and [Privacy Badger](https://privacybadger.org/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org#How-is-Privacy-Badger-different-from-Disconnect%2c-Adblock-Plus%2c-Ghostery%2c-and-other-blocking-extensions) are also both great extensions that just block third-party cookies in general. U**se a web browser that automatically blocks third-party tracking cookies** ([ICYMI, I recommend Brave](https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/)). This is the simplest way to block all third-party icky cookies while maintaining the helpful yummy cookies. **Clear your cookies occasionally.** We went over how persistent cookies stick around for however long they’re set to stick around for, some maybe even indefinitely. If you want to start fresh, go ahead and clear your cookies (here are some [instructions for tons of browsers and devices](https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-how-to-how-to-clear-cookies.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)). *Just a note: you’ll probably be signed out of most/all of your accounts, so you’ll need to sign in again when you visit your favorite websites.* **Use a VPN.** I’ll get into this in an upcoming post for a more detailed description, but the tl;dr is that a VPN is like putting up a privacy fence around everything that you do on the internet. I recommend [Proton VPN](https://protonvpn.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) which has a feature called [NetShield](https://protonvpn.com/support/netshield/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) that blocks ads and third-party trackers and doesn’t log or record any of your internet activity. ### TL;DR Cookies are a small piece of code that identifies you as a particular user. Some cookies are helpful and keep us logged into our favorite websites, but some cookies can be real privacy downers selling your web history to advertisers or really anyone willing to pay for it. Well, all this talk of cookies has got me craving some. I’m gonna go grab myself a frozen Thin Mint and call this entry *baked*. --- I’d love to hear what you thought of this explainer and if you’d like to see more content like this or if you prefer strictly tips, or if there’s something altogether different you’d like to see! Email me at womensprivacyproject@pm.me with your ideas! ### Are they really listening to you? URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/are-they-really-listening-to-you/ Last updated: 2022-08-08T15:11:17.000Z **Happy Monday, folks!** I’ve read a lot about a fun conversation friends like to have over brunch.. how could they possibly know that unless they’re listening!? Today’s post is a bit longer at 981 words and about 5 minutes read in total, but just focus on the devices you own and skip the rest! ### What am I suggesting and why? Block microphone access to apps on your phone that don’t need it, and turn off the mic on Alexa and Google Home for added privacy. There’s some debate about whether or not your devices are listening to you. Some say the cost of such a system would be astronomical and therefore impossible, others say all signs point to they’ve found a way. Why not just give yourself a little privacy just in case? --- ### You in? Let’s go! First, let’s check which apps have access to your microphone and turn off any that don’t need it. You should consider turning off mic access for any app that you don’t need to talk into (I generally keep access on for apps that I use to make calls). #### Android Microphone Access 1. Go to **Settings** \> **Privacy**. 2. **To block the microphone entirely**, turn off the switch for **Microphone Access**. 3. **To Block the microphone from specific apps**, open **Permission Manager > Microphone**. 4. Select any app that you want to block microphone access on (e.g. Google). 5. Select how you would like the microphone to be used (options are generally Always allow, Allow only while using the app, Ask every time, and Don’t allow). For the limited apps that I do allow mic access, I go with either **Allow only while using the app** (so it can’t listen while you’re not using it) or **Ask every time** (if I only need it to listen when I’m planning to use the mic). Turn off access for any app that you don’t need the microphone for. **If you use Google Assistant (e.g. ‘Hey Google’)** 1. Go to **Settings** and **search “Assistant Settings”** (I honestly can’t figure out where in the menu it is, so search is the fastest way to find it). 2. Under Popular Settings, choose **Hey Google & Voice Match.** 3. Next to **Hey Google**, turn the switch **off** to prevent Google from listening all the time. #### iPhone Microphone Access 1. Go to **Settings** \> **Privacy** \> **Microphone**. 2. Tap any ‘on’ switches (they’ll be green) to the ‘off’ position (they’ll be gray) for any apps you don’t want to have microphone access. There’s no full microphone kill switch on iPhone (can’t turn the mic off entirely like you can on Android), but it’s pretty easy to remove access from apps at least. **If you use ‘Hey Siri’** 1. Go to **Settings** \> **Siri & Search.** 2. Turn off the switch next to Listen for Hey Siri to prevent Apple from listening all the time. #### Smart Speakers Microphone Access Here’s how to block the microphone on Google Nest Hub, Alexa, and Apple HomePod. **Google Nest Hubs (formerly Google Home)** Google Nest Hubs have a convenient physical microphone on/off switch on the device. Look on the back or the bottom for a switch, and whenever you want your privacy, flip the switch to off to prevent the service from listening. **Alexa** Alexa has a convenient physical button on the top of the device to turn the microphone off, it looks like a microphone with a line through it. If you press that button, the lights should turn red and she who shall not be named\* may be named once more. *\*I have to give credit to a friend with a house full of Alexas that affectionately refers to her as “she who must not be named,” and it just seemed so incredibly appropriate that I refuse to call her anything else.* **Apple HomePod** Unfortunately, there’s no easy button for the HomePod, you have to open the Apple Home app on iPhone or iPad and disable the mic, or you can say “Hey Siri, stop listening” and the mic will turn off as well. Don’t ask me how to turn it back on though, I guess also in the app? The whole thing is weird. #### **Deleting Previous Recordings** If you didn’t already know, all of these services actually store your many inquiries for the weather and how many pints are in a gallon as recordings in your account. I’m not going to list all the ways to delete them though, because [Gear Patrol actually wrote a great article about smart speaker mics and has great instructions for deleting old recordings](https://www.gearpatrol.com/tech/a33900596/smart-speaker-privacy-settings-alexa-google-siri/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). Before you delete them though, do listen to a few and have a good laugh/cringe. --- ### Dig Deeper So the debate on whether your phone is listening to you rages on even today, but anecdotally, sure, we’ve all had an experience where we ask ourselves, “How could they possibly know that??” The ‘they’ in this case being the tech powers that be, but *they* also claim that they don’t. Who’s to say what the truth is? But it’s been debated quite a bit, and I’ll link some articles below so you can see for yourself. And just an FYI, [Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his laptop’s camera and mic](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/technology/personaltech/mark-zuckerberg-covers-his-laptop-camera-you-should-consider-it-too.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), so you be the judge. #### The Debate Rages On: - “Google Is Absolutely Listening to Your Conversations, and It Confirms Why People Don't Trust Big Tech” [Read on Inc.](https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/google-is-absolutely-listening-to-your-conversations-it-just-confirms-why-people-dont-trust-big-tech.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Your Phone Is Secretly Always Recording: How to Stop Google From Listening” [Read on MakeUseOf](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-google-android-listening/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Does Your Phone Listen to You for Ads? Or Is It Just Coincidence?” [Read on MakeUseOf](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/your-smartphone-listening-or-coincidence/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Does Facebook listen to you? Here's what you need to know” [Read on Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/does-facebook-listen-to-you?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Is Facebook listening to me? Why those ads appear after you talk about things” [Read on USA Today](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2019/06/27/does-facebook-listen-to-your-conversations/1478468001/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Facebook isn’t secretly listening to your conversations, but the truth is much more disturbing” [Read on New Atlas](https://newatlas.com/computers/facebook-not-secretly-listening-conversations/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Is Alexa Really Always Listening?” [Read on Reader’s Digest](https://www.rd.com/article/is-alexa-really-always-listening/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Amazon reportedly employs thousands of people to listen to your Alexa conversations” [Read on CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech/amazon-alexa-listening/index.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Quit SMS Text Messages URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/quit-sms-text-messages/ Last updated: 2022-08-01T15:12:20.000Z **Good morning, friends!** We’ve got a good one today with 684 words and about 4 minutes to read. Let’s get to it! ### What am I suggesting and why? Switch to a private, encrypted, open source messaging service [Signal](https://signal.org/en/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), and bring all your friends with you. **Regular ol’ SMS text messages just aren’t secure.** They’re easily intercepted (honestly, just run a search for ‘[text message interception](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=text+message+interception&t=h%5F&ia=web&ref=womensprivacyproject.org)’ and you will find dozens of how-to articles), and they’re [easily spoofed](https://www.jooksms.com/blog/what-is-sms-spoofing-what-are-the-ways-to-prevent-it/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) (meaning someone could pretend to be you or someone you know). Using a service with end-to-end encryption means that only the sender and receiver are able to decrypt the message (basically, if someone tries to intercept your message, they would just see a garbled mess of letters and numbers). **Duration:** 10 Minutes **Ease:** Very easy to set up, but maybe forward this to your friends if they’re not easily convinced to leave SMS behind. **Cost:** Free --- ### You in? Let’s go: Signal is available for Android and iOS as well as on your computer. 1. [Download Signal](https://signal.org/install?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). 2. Follow the instructions to sign up. You can choose to share your contacts or not, but it does make it easier to determine who already uses Signal if you do. 3. Invite your friends, seriously. --- ### Dig Deeper I know that ditching text messaging is not a small ask, and I’m not suggesting you need to do it all at once. It’s a good one to tackle over time, and eventually move away from entirely. #### Why Signal? Signal tops [nearly](https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/best-encrypted-messaging-apps?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [every](https://www.androidauthority.com/best-private-messenger-apps-android-874436/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [list](https://fossbytes.com/best-secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) of [private](https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/messaging-app-security?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [messaging](https://www.bestapp.com/best-secure-messaging-apps/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [apps](https://www.mobileappdaily.com/best-apps-for-secret-texting?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) and is used by [privacy experts](https://www.privacy-ticker.com/tag/edward-snowden/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [journalists](https://www.washingtonpost.com/anonymous-news-tips/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), [protesters](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/style/signal-messaging-app-encryption-protests.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), and public figures worldwide. It’s funded by donations and grants, it’s open source (meaning the code that runs it can be reviewed by anyone), and their encryption service is so good, it’s actually the standard adopted by other encrypted messaging services including WhatsApp. It also has additional privacy measures like Disappearing Messages, which is essentially the Inspector Gadget ‘[this message will self destruct](https://youtu.be/MPHyfZoSKM4?t=50&ref=womensprivacyproject.org)’ for the modern age, it disables screenshots (you can’t take a screenshot of any messages in the app), and it also has encrypted voice and video calling. Most importantly, they **do not** store metadata, so [there is nothing to share if a warrant is served](https://signal.org/bigbrother/santaclara/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). #### Are there alternatives? Of course, but let’s talk about a few of them. #### First, the Meta Messengers… **WhatsApp** is an end-to-end encrypted messaging service and on the surface shares many of the same features as Signal including Disappearing Messages (but notably *excluding* disabling screenshots), and even **Facebook Messenger** and **Instagram Messenger** have end-to-end encryption as an **option**, which when enabled opens up additional features like Disappearing/Vanishing Messages. BUT, and this is a BIG BUT—**all of these services are owned by Meta (formerly Facebook)**, and Meta is in the business of data collection. They not only [collect ample metadata](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/01/16/stop-using-facebook-messenger-after-whatsapp-vs-apple-imessage-and-signal-privacy-backlash/?sh=2f2e04444650&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) about your conversations, but will also happily share what they collect with any government agency that asks while [using it themselves to sell targeted ads](https://signal.org/blog/the-instagram-ads-you-will-never-see/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). #### What about Apple iMessages and Android Messages? In both cases, if everyone in the message is using the same standard (e.g. all users are on iMessage), then the messages are encrypted end-to-end. However, if one person isn’t using the same standard—like that one person with green chat bubbles in your iMessage app (note: it’s me, I’m that one)—then you’re switched back to SMS and those messages aren’t encrypted anymore. Both Apple and Google will also be collecting huge amounts of [metadata](https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/51754/digital-id/imessage-logs.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) from these services, which we’ve already covered above. Lastly, for iOS at least, there’s the issue of backups. If you use iCloud to backup your iMessages ([iCloud backups are unencrypted](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive/exclusive-apple-dropped-plan-for-encrypting-backups-after-fbi-complained-sources-idUSKBN1ZK1CT?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)), then those previously encrypted messages are still wide open to search and seizure. To Google’s credit, [Android’s backups actually ](https://www.androidcentral.com/how-googles-backup-encryption-works-good-bad-and-ugly?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)[*are*](https://www.androidcentral.com/how-googles-backup-encryption-works-good-bad-and-ugly?ref=womensprivacyproject.org)[ encrypted end-to-end](https://www.androidcentral.com/how-googles-backup-encryption-works-good-bad-and-ugly?ref=womensprivacyproject.org), so there’s that? #### Learn More I sprinkled links all throughout that I recommend checking out to dig deeper, so I won’t list them all here, but here are a couple extras that are worth a look: - “Why You Should Stop Using Facebook Messenger After Privacy Backlash” [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/01/16/stop-using-facebook-messenger-after-whatsapp-vs-apple-imessage-and-signal-privacy-backlash/?sh=2f2e04444650&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Why SMS Text Messages Aren’t Private or Secure” [How-to-Geek](https://www.howtogeek.com/709373/why-sms-text-messages-arent-private-or-secure/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Hide Your Venmo Activity URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/hide-your-venmo-activity/ Last updated: 2022-07-25T15:11:48.000Z **Happy Monday, friends!** Today’s post is 432 words and about 2 minutes to read. Let’s get to it! ### What am I suggesting and why? **Hide your activity BY DEFAULT on Venmo (and any other payment app you use)!** You may think you have nothing to hide in paying your friends for a meal or rent, but it actually says a lot about where you live, who you spend time with, how you spend that time, when you’re traveling, and what you spend money on among other things. **Duration:** 5 Minutes **Ease:** Very Easy **Cost:** Free --- ### You in? Let’s go: #### **In Venmo App (Best Option):** 1. Open **Venmo** app. 2. Tap **Me** in the bottom menu. 3. On the top right, tap the **Settings** icon (looks like a gear). 4. Tap **Privacy**. 5. Under **Default Privacy Settings**, select **Private**. 6. Under **More**, tap **Past Transactions**. 7. Tap **Change All to Private**. **For Added Privacy:** 1. Go back to **Privacy** \> **Location**. 2. **Deny app location permissions.** 3. Go back to **Privacy** \> **Friends List**. 4. Tap **Private**. 5. **Toggle off Appear in other users’ friends lists.** 6. Go back to **Privacy** \> **Friends & social.** 7. **Toggle off Phone Contacts.** #### **On Venmo.com (Note: website is missing some app privacy settings):** 1. Visit [venmo.com](https://venmo.com/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org). 2. Log in to your account. 3. In the left side menu, click **Settings** \> **Privacy**. 4. Under **Future payments**, click **Private**. 5. Under **Past payments**, click **Change to Private**. **For Added Privacy:** 1. In the left side menu under **Settings**, click **Friends & Social**. 2. **Toggle off Phone contacts.** 3. If you also use the Venmo mobile app, I recommend checking the “Added Privacy” steps above for the app since **not all privacy settings are available** on the web! --- ### Dig Deeper #### Venmo is Public by Default Venmo is what we call “public by default,” this means Venmo shares your information openly and widely with networks beyond your own personal one by default, and you need to change settings to protect your privacy. Friends of friends can see your activity for example, and those folks may not even be *friends* of friends, they might just be people that have contacted someone *you’ve* contacted before. It’s messy, and you might be giving away more than you think. **Most importantly, Venmo honors the most restrictive privacy setting on a transaction.** That means you’re also helping to protect your friends’ privacy when your transactions with them are private. #### Learn More - “Venmo: how the payment app exposes our private lives” [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/17/venmo-payments-app-default-privacy-settings-public-information?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Venmo privacy settings to change now” [The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/23/venmo-privacy-settings/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Venmo Gets More Private—but It’s Still Not Fully Safe” [Wired](https://www.wired.com/story/venmo-privacy-by-default-global-feed/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) [Subscribe](#/portal/signup) ### Ditch Google Chrome URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/ditch-google-chrome/ Last updated: 2022-07-18T15:11:26.000Z **Happy Monday, friends!** We’ve got 400 words and the full read is about 2 minutes. Let’s get to today’s privacy recommendation! ### **What am I suggesting and why?** [Download Brave](https://brave.com/download/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) web browser and don’t look back. Google is one of the largest ad companies in the world and tracks you all over the web, but Google Chrome is their window to absolutely everything you do online—even when you’re ‘incognito’. Stop telling Google all your business. **Duration:** 15 Minutes **Ease:** Very Easy **Cost:** Free --- ### **You got this, let’s go:** 1. [Download Brave](https://brave.com/download/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) for your Mac or PC. Follow instructions to install. 2. Follow the welcome tour Brave provides. 1. Optional: Import bookmarks from Chrome during the tour. 2. Set Brave as your default web browser. 3. [Uninstall Google Chrome](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop&ref=womensprivacyproject.org). #### **Don’t forget mobile!** Use Brave on your **mobile device** as well for added privacy. **iPhone/iPad Instructions** for changing default browser: 1. Download [Brave for iPhone](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/brave-private-web-browser/id1052879175?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4&ref=womensprivacyproject.org). 2. Open Settings > Safari. 3. Tap Default Browser App. 4. Select Brave from the list. **Android Instructions** for changing default browser: 1. Download [Brave for Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brave.browser&hl=en&ref=womensprivacyproject.org). 2. Open Settings > Apps. 3. Tap Brave. 4. Under ‘Defaults,’ tap Browser app. 5. Select Brave from the list. --- #### **Why Brave?** **Privacy and familiarity.** Privacy is the default. Brave automatically blocks trackers and ads, and it ensures that every website you visit is secure (you’ll see ‘https’ in the address bar instead of just ‘http’.) Familiarity is nice. Google Chrome and Brave both run on the same open-source platform: Chromium. Chromium browsers are very popular and they run websites well—I say this as a web developer. If you’re familiar with Google Chrome, Brave will feel like home. For the extremely privacy minded, Brave also has a Tor option built in if you need to go totally undercover (think of it like an incognito window that’s ACTUALLY incognito). #### **Are there other options?** Definitely. There are other options for private browsers—[Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) would be my alternative suggestion for top notch privacy and usability. If you want maximum privacy in your web browser, you could also look at [Tor](https://www.torproject.org/download/?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) browser, but it seems like you sacrifice a little on the usability and pages loading properly. There’s also a list of the [5 best private web browsers of 2022](https://www.lifewire.com/best-private-web-browsers-4177138?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) from Lifewire if you want to see some more options! --- ### **Want to dig deeper?** - “The 5 Best Private Web Browsers of 2022” [Lifewire](https://www.lifewire.com/best-private-web-browsers-4177138?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Why You Shouldn’t Use Google Chrome After New Privacy Disclosure” [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/03/20/stop-using-google-chrome-on-apple-iphone-12-pro-max-ipad-and-macbook-pro/?sh=4c61ac644d08&ref=womensprivacyproject.org) - “Chrome: Google’s biggest threat to your privacy” [ComputerWorld](https://www.computerworld.com/article/2480353/chrome--google-s-biggest-threat-to-your-privacy.html?ref=womensprivacyproject.org) ### Women's* Privacy Project URL: https://www.womensprivacyproject.org/coming-soon-2/ Last updated: 2022-07-06T16:23:28.000Z **This is Women's Privacy Project**, a newsletter designed to help women\* understand the importance of data privacy and how to achieve it. Our privacy online and off has never been more important than it is today. With attacks on our bodies, our autonomy, our rights and freedoms, everything that you do, say, search, buy, or post online has the potential to be used against you. This newsletter is designed with the sole purpose of making data privacy easy, straightforward, and implementable by anyone regardless of your tech savvy or lack thereof. These tips will be straight to the point, include a brief statement of why this tip is relevant, how long it will take to implement, and the actual steps to complete. Data privacy is for everyone, and for those of us whose rights are on the chopping block, we have never been more at risk by data collection. Let’s get started. \*The Women’s Privacy Project is for everyone. Our nonbinary, trans, and all other friends who value privacy online are always welcome. We will often specifically address privacy issues in regard to people whose rights are being summarily repealed. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup)